


Once Upon a Time

by iPrincezzInuyoukai



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Codes & Ciphers, F/F, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Family Secrets, Gen, M/M, New and Old versions of Fairy Tale, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Silly summary, This has been rewritten, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-13 14:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 39,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4525893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iPrincezzInuyoukai/pseuds/iPrincezzInuyoukai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Gravity Falls end up trapped in a dome created by demonic magic it is in the hands of Dipper and Mabel to go out and look for magical objects that can confront the power of the demon that has imprisoned their loved ones.</p><p>In their search they make new friends, new enemies and perhaps finding something more about them and their family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Through the Looking Glass.

**Author's Note:**

> So, long ago I had published the first version of this story but I did not manage to convince myself and decided to leave it aside while I had new projects in mind. Luckily it is back with new improvements.
> 
> I don't have much to say, the first tags are almost all I need when describing the first few chapters *shrugs* But if you need to know more you can ask me here or on my tumblr, with the same nickname.
> 
> I hope you like this magical adventure that is about to begin and see you soon in a sunny day :D
> 
> You can always contact me on Tumblr: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also some of my future stories: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/My-Fanfics)

The night was clearer than any other, the silver moon illuminated the whole forest and the wind balanced the foliage, causing the shadows to form the rarest and strangest forms, which would frighten a child and an adult. Among those shadows was one that wasn’t caused by the trees.

Of stubborn and small stature, covered by a blue sky hood, without being able to see the face, determined and sure of the way. An almost soundless tinkle and a glow rising in the right pocket made him look down.

“We haven't arrived yet?” A female voice asked, sounded exasperated.

“Patience is the virtue of wise men.” The calm reflected in his voice, but he seemed to have an overflowing joy. “We are close, we will arrive at The Carnival of the Blue Moon tomorrow at noon.”

“Why did you decide to go back now?” The voice asked again, now in an annoying tone, “Your spells and enchantments have become perfect and better for half a year.”

“I thought it was the best setting for my return, all the people gathered in one place. Imagine all their faces when all the fun becomes terror.”

“Your drama is a waste of time.” Now the voice sounded boring.

“What can I tell you? This is how I make a living.” He shrugged.

“Remember that my patience has limits if I weren’t trapped in this thing I would – ”

“' _Kill you_ _'_? That's what you were going to say?” The boy pulled out a silver mirror. The glass had a splendid glow, illuminating everything around it. The boy’s face was white, almost albino, and soft as the baby skin, freckles on both cheeks, platinum blond hair, a baby blue suit and a necklace of jade, with an arrogant smile appeared on his face. “Your _only_ chance to be free? What _could_ you do _withou_ t your powers and my intervention?”

The voice was silent. The brightness of the glass became stronger in the mirror and on the other side of the mirror a multicolored star with one eye in the middle had been shown, the star peaks were five in total, white, yellow, red, green and orange glowing, with lilac color in the center. The star moved closer to the glass, “Remember we have a _promise_. My freedom for – ”

“Yes, yes, I know.” He interrupted her, he wasn’t in the mood to argue with a _star_. “Now you do me the honor of leaving me alone for a moment? I want to think of a way to get everyone’s attention at the Carnival.”

The star stared at him for a moment, she closed her eye, with a sigh she kept floating in the middle of the emptiness on the other side of the mirror. “It's better that you fulfill your promise, Gideon.”

And making the glow disappear from the glass the mirror became an ordinary mirror where the glass no longer showed a star but a young man named Gideon.

Gideon sighed, relieved to see that she had finally left. _Patience_. He had waited almost seven years of his life, it wasn’t hard for him to wait another day. He followed the trail of trees until he found a familiar path. His smile grew even wider.

“Hello, _Gravity Falls_.” His right hand went straight to his jade necklace, touching the precious jewel. When his hand made contact with the jade Gideon felt that his feet had risen a few meters of the ground.

He gave a satisfactory glance at the town that was, literally, under his feet. But he wasn’t interested in those unimportant people who lived far from the forest. They didn’t deserve his attention. His eyes focused on the last of the houses, where the town ended and the forest began.

His old youth competition, _The Mystery Shack_.

“And hello again, _Pines_ _f_ _amily_.”

* * *

 

**Z YZW RH ZYLFG GL YV FMOVZHSVW**


	2. The Carnival of the Blue Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The demon their Grunkles faced almost fifty years ago is finally free.
> 
> Now it is up to Dipper and Mabel to liberate their people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have decided to update this story every month, and preferably the first Sunday.
> 
> I have a lot of homework to do and also study so I leave the chapter now.
> 
> Maybe there are errors, but I will correct them tomorrow n.n Thanks for your attention <3
> 
> Update: June/04/2017

The sun was beginning to show in Gravity Falls, announcing that a new day began.

The triangular window of the Mystery Shack began to be bathed in its entirety and letting the sunlight enter the room resulting in a combination of yellow and orange. The boy sleeping in the left bed, annoyed by the sunlight trying to ruin the best dream he had had in awhile, decided to cover himself completely. Returning to feeling surrounded by darkness he tried to return to his dream.  _ Was impossible _ . A snout he knew well, too wet for his liking, began to nibble at his blankets and its tongue touched the tip of his foot causing a cold to run down his spine.

“ _ Hey _ !” Dipper screamed furiously.

Waddles, the pig, was still nibbling at his blankets with a look of innocence. Like his owner.

Dipper sighed. A long sigh to be too early. He wasn’t used to getting up too early, that was Mabel’s work and apparently it was also Waddles’. Now he was awake, without knowing the end of his dream he got up and took the pig in his arms – He had finally managed to be just as strong as his sister – Moving to Mabel’s bed and dropping the pig on her bed.

The girl obviously woke up frightened by a tremendous shake, “The socks are coming for me!”

Dipper laughed at Mabel’s actions, apparently she was still afraid of the sock puppets after using magic to impress a guy with a strange hobby,  _ again _ . “Calm down, Mabel.” Dipper put a hand on her shoulder, “There is not a floating sock, yet.”

Mabel looked around, she didn’t see the mini-cast of Gravity Falls floating though she did see Waddles huddled in her bed and Dipper trying not to laugh.“That’s not funny, Dipper.” She hit him with a stuffed animal, Mabel sat on the edge of her bed, Waddles came up to her, “What did Waddles do to you this time?” She asked, the brunette was beginning to get used to her brother’s morning jokes almost all caused by her dear pig.

“Again, he took off my blankets.”

“Bah, Dipper, we both know that Waddles was hungry, he probably just wanted a sandwich.”

Dipper gave himself a small massage on his forehead, trying to think of a way to get rid of that morning torture. “You should leave him outside like any good pet.”

“No!” Mabel stood up, showing herself to be taller than Dipper, “I can’t let my tasty Waddles out there, remember the incident with the Dragon?”

Of course, the outside world was too dangerous for a growing pig that could knock you down easily with a single blow. “But Stan said he could help with some incantations to keep predators away from here.”

Mabel pursed her lips. “I trust Grunkle Stan, but I feel more comfortable with Waddles inside the Shack.”

Dipper looked at his sister and her pig. Well, ten years together shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“Look at the bright side of this, Waddles makes sure you can take advantage of the day.” Mabel said with her optimistic attitude. Mabel always saw the good side of everything and everyone, even when there were none, Mabel was too much like her late grandmother.

Although she was right, so Dipper could enjoy the day, get up and have breakfast early saved him several hours to explore the forest, work on the Mystery Shack and end the day learning and writing in his grandfather’s Journals. Maybe Mabel was right,  _ maybe _ .

“ _ Kids! _ ” They heard the hoarse voice on the first floor of the cabin. “ _ If you are awake go down to breakfast or I will give it to the raccoons! _ ”

“He will not.” Mabel and Dipper laughed until the sound of the door opening made them stop, “We’re coming down!” They left the room that belonged to both of them, down the stairs and into the kitchen where Grunkle Stanley would be waiting for them.

What better way to start the day than with a rich breakfast that possibly had some Stan’s hair – Their Grunkle should have known that the spatula is not a scraping hand – But today wasn’t any day, today was  _ The Blue Moon Carnival _ , a carnival that only happens during the summer in their town. At night the whole town would be filled with fireworks, sweets, gifts, and of course,  _ The Magic Show! _

And when the moon is at its highest point, magicians, wizards, sorcerers, and witches did tricks that left others breathless and longing to see more. After all, magic was very rare, very few people were able to learn it perfectly. And one of the people who were famously recognized as one of the best wizards was –

“Grandpa will be here soon.” Mabel said happily.

Stanford Pines, the best magician in Gravity Falls, recognized by the Society of Magicians, Witches and Wizards, the Author of the three best Magic Journals, Stanley’s twin brother and Mabel’s and Dipper’s grandfather. He was almost never in Gravity Falls, he was always traveling the world, collecting all the knowledge of magic, spells, enchantments, curses, etc. And when he came to visit it was for a short time, but he always tried to take advantage of every moment that he shared with his family.

“I can’t wait for him to see how much I have managed to record in the Journals.” Dipper had learned several spells of attack and defense from his grandfather, in addition to inheriting the three Journals. If there was someone who was as good as Stanford, apart from Stanley himself, it was Dipper.

“You two and your nerd stuffs.” Stan spoke after serving breakfast to his nephew and niece, sitting in his chair to read the newspaper entitled ' _ The Gravity Falls Gossiper _ '.

“Dipping Sauce,” Mabel called her brother, he stopped when he heard his sister speak with nicknames, that meant only one thing, “Won't you tell me that you'll go to the forest to explore all day until evening? We have so many things to do for this big night.”

“You better listen to your sister, you shouldn’t spend so much time doing who-knows-what.” Stan switched to another page of the newspaper.

“Well – ” Dipper scratched his cheek. Mabel’s eyes met his, Dipper knew there was no way out when she made her puppy eyes.

“ _ Do it for your family _ .” She spoke tenderly.

No, there is no way out of this, “Okay.” He accepted.

“Yes! You’re the best brother I could have asked for!” Mabel shouted in happiness, hugging Dipper.

“I am your only brother.” Dipper whispered. Mabel is supposed to be the older sister but sometimes they both seemed to forget it.

“Finish your breakfast and you can leave but don’t delay. There are several silly tourists who come to see some magic and I will not leave the gift shop alone. Don’t spend too much, your wages are already difficult to pay.”

“Of course, Grunkle Stan.” They spoke obediently, fingers crossed under the table. Knowing Mabel, she would do anything but choose the cheapest things for her family show.

When the twins finished their breakfast, they decided to get up and change their clothes. They wouldn’t go out in pajamas, that bet was settled some time ago. Dipper decided to wear his typical clothes, washing clothes according to him was a waste of time. Mabel chose a sweater with fireworks, but in the sunlight could see how they changed colors and seemed to explode.

The twins took their savings and put them in their pockets. Mabel also decided to prepare Waddles. Of course, wherever she is going Waddles is coming too.

“See you at noon!”

Stanley nodded before looking up at the clock. 8:30. It was time to open The Mystery Shack. Stan got up from his chair and headed for the stairs to change clothes and become the ‘ _ Mr. Mystery _ ’.

Just when he had climbed the first step somebody started knocking on the back door. He cursed under his breath.

“I’m allowed to sell those acid candy. I have a permission.” He opened the door hoping to see any unwanted person and flee as fast as possible.

“And what about giving a cup of coffee to this old man?”

☽✠☾

“What else do we need?” Dipper asked, making sure they both had enough money.

“Now,” Mabel checked the list she had made the night before, “For fireworks – We need two pounds of gunpowder and glitter,  _ lots _ of glitter!”

“Mabel, don’t you think this is a bad idea? Gunpowder is acceptable, but  _ glitter _ ?” Especially when something told him it wasn’t for the fireworks. It’s not as if the four creepy-looking costumes Mabel had been making screamed ‘ _ Run! _ ’

“ _ Glitter! _ ”

Dipper rolled his eyes and rolled the list back into the pocket of his vest.

The twins went to ‘ _ Dusk 2 Dawn _ ’. As they entered, they decided to separate to get things faster. Dipper decided to look for gunpowder and some things for dinner tonight and Mabel chose to go for the glitter and some things for his spells.

When she finally reached the glitter aisle Waddles began pulling her sleeve, “Wait a moment, Waddles.” She said without peeking out of the cans. But the pig seemed to ignore her and kept pulling on her sweater. “Wad–” Mabel turned to see why her little piggy insisted so much, but in doing so she finally understood why her little pig was so nervous.

Blonde hair platinum, blue suit, white skin and with a look that everyone could say was tenderness, although perhaps they were blind and needed a cornea transplant.  _ Gideon Gleeful _ . Her personal stalker when she was twelve.

“Mabel Pines.” Gideon leaned in and took her hand, leaving a light kiss on her skin, “What a great  _ coincidence _ to find you here.”

“Yes – Uh, great coincidence, Gideon.” At what time separate was a good idea?  _ Hurry up Dipper! _ “When did you get back?”

“Oh, a few hours ago. I came because I want to participate in the Carnival.”

“It's great to hear that.” Mabel decided to walk down the aisle, pretending to pay attention to some items, Waddles was walking along behind her.

“I suppose you and your family will be there too.” Gideon walked now very close to her. Shoulder to shoulder.

“Yes, Mayor Tyler owed Grunkle Stan a favor and decided that our act of magic would close the show tonight.”

Gideon frowned at Stan’s name, though it wasn’t like he was trying to hide it from Mabel. “Well, my marshmallow, it's time to retire, I hope to see you tonight.”

“Then I’ll see you tonight Gideon, and please, don’t call me marshmallow anymore.”

“Oops,  _ did I _ ? It must have been very  _ uncomfortable _ for you. It is an old habit, don't worry,  _ sweet _ Mabel. See you tonight.” Gideon said goodbye to her to disappear into another hallway. “See you at the show,  _ my Queen _ .”

Mabel didn’t breathe until Gideon was gone. She knew him from her childhood, their families competed in tricks of magic; Though the difference is that her family had  _ real _ magic while the Gleeful family was based on some simple tricks that Gideon, the only one with magical blood, charmed some tourists stealing tourism to the Mystery Shack.

Gideon liked her when she first met him, they shared the same opinions about fashion. Until he began to give her extravagant gifts and exaggerated love letters, not to mention the confession when he was ten years old in the stylish restaurant “ _ Le Club _ ”. Stan and Ford threatened to seek a restraining order if Gideon wouldn’t stop harassing Mabel and trying to steal her grandfather’s Journals. The Gleeful family moved to the Capital eight years ago.

She hoped that if they ever saw each other again, they would both laugh at that shameful crush. Apparently it wouldn’t be.

“Mabel!” She heard Dipper calling her, she turned to look at him. “Don’t you believe what finally came to the store?”

“I saw Gideon.” She said.

“It’s ‘ _ Dungeons, Dungeons and More –  _ ’ wait, what?”

“Gideon is in Gravity Falls, right now.”

“Oh God, Stan wouldn’t like to know this.”

“He wants to act in the Carnival but let’s not let that discourage us, okay? It’s already been eight years since we last saw him, surely he has changed.” Mabel pretended to be calm, she could see that Gideon still kept that weird crush for her but she didn’t want to worry her family or have Stan arrested for fighting with a child,  _ again _ . “Let’s go, Bro-Bro. We still have to prepare for today and those costumes will not be able to glitter on their own.”

Dipper decided to make a mental note:  **_Never leave Mabel with glitter._ **

☽✠☾

“We’re here!” Mabel shouted, “ Your favorite nephew and niece have just arrived.”

“I’m in the living room!” Stan shouted from the room.

The twins walked to the living room and smiled as the Cheshire Cat to saw the person sitting next to Grunkle Stan. He wore a brown wrap, glasses with a crystal ready to break, and a mahogany cane being held by the most peculiar mark on him, six fingers in each hand.

“Grandpa Ford!” The twins screamed to see their grandfather and they ran to embrace him. It didn’t matter that they were 20-year-old adults, they still felt like children when Stanford came home.

“You two look a lot taller this year, is it that at last my brother is buying good food?”

“Jeez, that was only once.” The youngest of the Stan’s murmured.

“Where did you go this time?” Dipper asked excitedly.

“Did you bring us gifts?” Mabel shook her grandfather.

“Calm down, children, one moment please.” Stanford asked, “Everything will be said tomorrow at breakfast, although good deduction Mabel, I have brought gifts.”

“Yippee!” The twins clapped their hands at the pleasant news.

“Stanley, would you be so kind as to give me the big heavy leather bag at the entrance of the house?”

“Of course, ask the 70-year old man with muscle pain to drag a backpack with almost ten pounds of scrap metal.”

“You know that I would, but I have traveled so much that I am very tired.”

When Stanley returned with a large backpack Stanford with a slight movement of the staff made the backpack float towards them. “You could have done it from the beginning.” Stan complained.

“My fault, I forget.” Stanford pulled out two packages wrapped in leather, “For Dipper, five pairs of Phoenix feathers, they are very difficult to get so use them carefully, lad.”

“Thanks Grandpa Ford.” Dipper stared at the feathers once they were in his hand. They were of a soft and fine touch, they must have been of an adult phoenix, the color and size of the feathers could tell the age of the magnificent bird.

“And for Mabel,” Ford handed her a much smaller and lighter package. “I hope you enjoy it, my child.”

Mabel excitedly opened – ripped – the wrap and let out a shout that could almost deafen anyone, “You are the best Grandpa!” Mabel hugged him so tightly she almost drowned the poor old man. The gift that Ford had brought for his granddaughter was a record of ‘ _ Sev’ral Timez _ ’ but with the peculiarity that when it was put into playback mode the singers appear as real-size holograms.

“I don’t give good gifts?” Stan asked falsely offended, the Pines family laughed.

These were the moments Mabel enjoyed with her family, she still wasn’t determined if she had to say about Gideon’s return, they were all having a good time. She sighed, it was better to say it once before Stan saw him at the carnival and could do a drama, ( _ I'm not a drama, Mabel, I'm just a old man. _ ) “I have some news to give.” Her family watched her, “Well, do you remember Gideon?”

“The gremlin who followed you everywhere with some silly excuse and tried to steal the Mystery Shack?" Stan asked and sipped his Pitt Cola.

“The same kid who tried to steal one of the Journals?” Ford asked annoyed at having to remember the past.

“Yes.”

“What about that boy? I hope his parents have put him in a gnomes boarding school.”

“He is in the town.” Dipper released the information.

Mabel waited for several things, including that Stan spit out all his drink, Ford ran to his studio to protect the Journals and Dipper cleaning his vest of the spilled drink on him.

She was ready for everything.

☽✠☾

“I can’t believe that the Shack was about to become enveloped in flames, our beautiful costumes are now ruined.”

Well, almost everything. Mabel was annoyed by Gompers’ sabotage, if only the goat and her beloved Waddles could get along with, her family could now have worn the costumes she spent several hours making.

“Yes, me neither. It's a mystery that only your study has been about to be enveloped in flames.” Stan spoke. The truth is that he had to disturb the goat so that he began to fight with the pig and in tatters both ended up hitting the gas pipe until it broke and burned part of the Shack, activating the alarm. He loved his niece but not for a million dollars, he would agree to wear those kitschy costumes.

“Maybe we’ll have better luck next Carnival.” Dipper put a hand on her shoulder. He also had something to do with the mysterious fire. There was only one way to bother Gompers.

“Well, I wanted to wear it.”

Mabel wasn't the only one upset, Dipper and Stan sighed, that was one of the rare things that Mabel and Ford have in common,  _ a strange fashion sense _ , what magician still uses a cane? That is like use a wand for perform spells.

Luckily they had already reached the center of the city, everything that was pure fun was already being installed.

“Alright kids, go have fun while we set the stage for us.” Stan handed them a few bills, the twins checked that they were not fake.

“Do not come with us?” Mabel asked.

“We may catch up with you later, but I have to watch Stanley not do something illegal using my name again.”

The twins nodded and began to walk away from the older twins until they were out of sight in the crowd. Stanford turned to see his twin, Stan also seemed not to be in a good mood today.

“What did you find?” Stanley asked.

Stanford sighed resignedly and leaned back in the car, massaging his nose. “Not much, no one knows where she is, I talk to several wizards, witches – Even demons! But they all talk in codes and riddles.”

“I thought it was what you liked the most.”

“It is, but not when that stupid amulet disappeared, being so close to this date, and if someone releases her? Cipher had promised that cave would be safe. I fear it is he who decides to release her.”

“That triangle isn't so stupid as to want to release the one who he helped imprison, even if it's a human, no one trusts the demon’s words; Of all the creatures you have known, demons are the most dangerous.”

“I know.” Stanford let out a long, weary sigh.

Both twins were equally worried. That creature was perhaps not the most powerful of all the demons, but she was a great problem for the magic of his world, she could even start a war, and not only against humans, also against her own species.

“What will we do if someone releases her?” Stanley asked, looking at his twin.

“I hope and you are wrong, but we would have to look for new Mystical Objects.”

“If so, you have forgotten Dipper and Mabel, we can’t take them with us.”

It’s true. At that time both were young and still had no responsibilities that would prevent them from traveling the world. “We can hide them in the Shack, create a protective field of invisibility.”

“A good idea Poindexter, but you forget something partially important.” In his brother’s face of confusion Stanley continued talking, “They look like us, in almost everything.”

“Right, we’re Pines after all.” Stanford smiled, rejoicing for a moment.

“Think about this another day, it may take years until we know where the amulet is, maybe just lost in the forest and is under a stone now.” Stanley smiled at his brother. Even after many years he had to keep lowering him from his paranoid clouds to bring him back to reality.

“You're right. Then let's go and prepare our stage.”

“Well Poindexter, take some boxes and start the magic.”

Although Stanford knew that his brother was trying to help him, he couldn't help but listen to that inner voice that told him to be very attentive tonight, something very strange was happening around him.

Stanford tapped his forehead, trying to erase that voice, the last time he heard that voice he ended up betraying almost everyone.

_ Dammit! _ Maybe Stanley was right and he was just getting old.

☽✠☾

“I'm going to eat that, that too,” Mabel pointed to the various food stalls, “I will definitely eat that.” She said every time she saw something delicious or smelled great.

Dipper shrugged, “Do not you think that's dangerous for your health?”

“The Alpha twin never gets sick, that's an advantage of us. I will live to be 150 years old!” She shouted excitedly as if she were the queen of the world while Dipper rolled his eyes.

“Hey Dipper, Mabel!” A red-haired boy with freckles on his cheeks came up to greet them, he wore the school uniform.

“Peter!” Mabel waved her hand. The twin, seeing the red-haired boy in his school uniform, they asked if he was going to participate, too.

“Of course, I want to show my family what I learned. That's why I decided to participate.” Peter scratched the back of his neck and looked down.

“Come on, don’t be discouraged, you’re just an apprentice, look at Dipper, he can’t talk to girls without stuttering but he’s one of the best mages.” Mabel hit her twin’s back.

“You’re not helping at all.” Dipper murmured.

The boy gave the woods a nostalgic glance. “Hope this time Dad can smile again.”

Ford had taught his grandchildren magical techniques of attack and defense, but Stan decided to teach them physical attacks and how to use weapons. That wasn’t just for bonding time, it was more so that they never had the same fate as Wendy Corduroy, ten years ago.

A redheaded girl who was friends with both. A girl who decided to take the forest trail, a very easy route to go visit her grandmother in early summer and had never seen or know anything about her or her whereabouts. No one knows what could have happened to her, she was one of the strongest girls in town, she could even compete against her own father in strength.

Forests were almost always dangerous places for travelers. For that reason, some of them chose to use protection spells when traveling between them or simply avoid them.

“Peter,” Mabel spoke, “Whatever you plan to do, your family will be proud of that. I assure about this.”

“Thanks guys,” Peter smiled at them, “Make your best, we will be supporting you.” The boy said goodbye to both of them and went away to look for his group of classes.

Dipper and Mabel sighed. They hadn’t thought much about Wendy for years. They also tried to help in the search for her but back then they were younger and the townspeople didn’t allow them to help.

“Dipper.” Mabel saw her twin, Wendy's disappearance affected many people.

“I’m fine, I just – All this looks distant now.”

“She would never have liked to see us sad.” Wendy was the older sister they wished had. They had fun with her when it was time to work at the gift shop.

Dipper and Mabel decided to raise their spirits, they came to have fun and for God's sake that would be so. For the next three hours they went to spend time eating, climbing the roller coaster ( _ A bad sequence of steps _ ), talking about silly things, looking at handsome and hot dates ( _ Only applies to Mabel _ ) and trying to get a girlfriend for Dipper ( _ Failed mission _ ).

Citizens were already beginning to take their seats around the stage, the closer to appreciate the show was much better.

Fortunately for the twins, they still hadn’t found Gideon. Or Grunkle Stan trying to collect tickets for the show... Still.

“Kids!” They heard Stan call them behind the stage, he was already dressed in his typical Mr. Mystery suit. “What took you so long? The show is about to start and we have to go get ready.”

“Can we see some shows?” Mabel asked with her puppy eyes.

Dipper laughed at how his Grunkle fell at Mabel's manipulation. If Dipper was a great wizard like Ford, Mabel was the best manipulating people just as Stan did. They are just the new generations of the Pines Twins.

They approached the big stage in the middle of the Carnival, dodging some people and reaching the front row. The Mayor gave a word of thanks for another year where magic brought joy to the town, the people applauded and with that began the magic show.

The first to open the show were Gravity Falls Elementary School; The young wizards, including Peter, were responsible for growing small flowers and from the cocoons small colorful butterflies flew through the crowd, the villagers applauded the young wizards. Dipper could hear Mabel shouting loudly for Peter’s name.

It was then the turn of an Stanford’s old friend, The Hand Witch, who as her name indicates, could control several hands, nobody wanted to know how she got more each year but her magic show was a favorite by the public. Her handsome and incredible boyfriend handed her a bouquet of roses once her show ended.

Tricks, spells, levitation, divination, hypnosis, and even jokes and puns were some things that the magicians at Gravity Falls offered to the public. Harmless tricks.

“And now, let us receive with great applause our beloved Pines family.” The Mayor Tyler spoke, allowing The Pines to take the stage.

Dipper breathed, mentally preparing, seeing his twin equally nervous. When they both got on stage they realized that neither Ford nor Stan were behind them.

“Where is Stan and Ford?” Mabel whispered.

“I thought they were behind you.” Dipper whispered to his sister.

The twins searched the public even though Stan and Ford were in the back holding a sign that they could read a ‘ _ Good Luck _ ’. The twins were about to go after them, but people were watching them waiting for the best magic show.

Mabel glanced at Dipper. His brother nodded.

With a slight movement of hands, Mabel made appear pink lights, Dipper did the same only that their lights were blue. They had been practicing illusions for years, this would be like a children's game. They began to move synchronously, as if they were in front of a mirror. More colored lights began to appear in front of them, dancing to the movement of their hands. Slowly colored lines began to come out of the body of its creators and swim among the audience, people were surprised more and more.

Far away from all the world were the Stan’s, watching the spectacle of their family. The elders smiled wistfully, it was time for them to go their own way.

“ _ Lucem lunarem! _ ” Both exclaimed raising their arms to the sky and the colored lights that floated among the inhabitants of the town rose quickly towards the starry night exploding in thousands of lights and falling like a rain of stars. The twins snapped their fingers and in the sky five figures exploded, a pine tree, a shooting star, a crescent moon and a hand with six fingers and in the center of the four forms appeared the name of the Mystery Shack.

A couple of explosions were heard in the distance and in the dark sky, the surname Pines illuminated the Carnival.

“Thank you so much Gravity Falls.” The mayor came on stage, standing in front of all the magicians, sorcerers, witches and villagers, “And also I en– ”

“Amazing!”

All the people turned around to see the person who had just arrived at the end of the show. Gideon Gleeful.

“Lil’ Gideon!” An old boy fan screamed at the albino magician. Hearing the name of the old favorite of all, the villagers approached the young man.

“Thank you my beloved public, you are all a wonder tonight. I am very sorry to be late for our precious Carnival.”

The Pines Twins narrowed their eyes, it was obvious he was lying but no one would believe them, so it was time to go.

“Gideon, you will always be welcome to participate in the Carnival, everyone is eager to hear your stories.”

“Stop my friends, you make me blush. Although I have something much better than a few anecdotes, do you want to see a real magic spell?” Everyone applauded. Gideon smiled walking towards the stage, it was a sadness that his marshmallow and her clumsy brother had to go, they wouldn’t get very far. “Gravity Falls, it’s good to be back. For so long I have been practicing this great spell, which I hope will leave you all satisfied as it could change your view of things.” People seemed more excited with every word Gideon said, “How many of you have seen an summon?” That caught the attention of everyone, “And I only need the help of the blue light of the moon and this amulet!” In his plump hand he held a small blue gem with slight green tones.

Dipper and Mabel were already off the stage when they met Stan and Ford.

“Thanks for let us.” Mabel spoke.

“We were going to come for you.” Stan said once they started walking toward the Shack.

“ _ Gideon. _ ” Dipper and Mabel said annoyed.

“ _ Gideon. _ ” Stanley and Stanford said tired.

“That gremlin.” Stan grunted, “With what trick does this child plan to win over the people of the town?”

“He said it was an summon spell with the help of a blue amulet.” Mabel said as if it wasn’t of great importance, however the Stan’s stopped walking, a shiver ran through their bodies. “It could be a lie, that spells are illegal and – ” Mabel stopped talking when they saw the Stan’s running toward the stage.

Ford’s eyes widened in terror as the albino child had the jade necklace in his hands, the key to releasing her.

" _Lorem caduca et stellae respiciant ad sidera vultus_ _–_ "

He had to get there before Gideon finished his spell, he couldn’t let evil be unleashed once again into his world.

" _ Et credite quis sis. _ "

It was too late. The blue light of the moon fell like a waterfall into the amulet, filling it with magic.

“Gideon!” Ford screamed, shaking with fury. His family came after him.

“Pines family, do you like what you see?”

“There are innocent people right now!”

Sadly that no longer mattered to Gideon. “But I have a friend who wants to say  _ hello _ .” Gideon took out of his pocket a silver mirror. Ford froze at the object.

“Gideon!” Stan shouted, putting himself next to his brother, “You insolent brat, you have no idea what she will do to you when you set her free!”

“On the contrary, my good friend,  _ Stanley _ , Bella has told me great things, very useful, how to free her, how to dominate the world.”

“Don’t you dare Gideon or I’ll take care of kicking your sorry ass and sending you back to your poor mother!” Stanley shouted.

“C’mon Gideon, let me see my old friends.” Everyone present heard a loud voice, bringing several sensations to the Stan’s.

“ _ Liberandam. _ ”

Like two magnets, the mirror was attracted by the magical energy that the amulet possessed right now, it was then that everyone saw a orange gloved hand came out taking the amulet, then was followed by another arm with a yellow gloved hand, holding on to the edge of the mirror, a platinum head began to emerge, leaving a female body in a lilac suit, the mirror fell to the floor while a glow surrounded it. The woman who had just emerged from the mirror fell elegantly on stage, green and pink slippers, her platinum hair was combed back with a bangs covering the left half of her face, her right eye was a deep black, her skin was as white as snow.

In front of them, as if she had never been affected by the passage of time, was  _ Bella Trix, the Star of an Eye. _

“Stanley and Stanford, my old friends.” Bella greeted with a melodious voice, unlike the voice she had when she was locked in the mirror. “Ugh, you two are olds, that shows how fragile humans are.”

“Bella.” Stanford spoke, demonstrating how much anger he had toward that demon, “What are you up to now?” The six-fingered old man asked.

“My! Fordsy, you already know me.” Bella smiled like a cat, she took her hand to her cheek imitating a confused look, “What could it be? Oh! Yeah. That.” Those present saw her only visible eye turning blue, “ _ Revenge for locking me up! _ ” The colors in Bella's suit were reversed implying that she was pissed off.

White fire appeared in her hands and around her causing the villagers to flee from the place to see the chaos that was beginning to form.

“Stanley, take the kids out of here!” Ford shouted to his brother with intentions of running to fight against Bella.

“You’re crazy if you think I’ll leave you here!” Stanley tried to reason with Ford.

Bella Trix began whispering words in another language causing her white fire to rise to the sky and begin to fall like a semi transparent dome over the town. Once her spell began to take effect, Bella moved quickly to Ford and before he could react or counterattack Bella was already holding him by the neck, a white light surrounded Ford.

The old man began to feel weak and fainted.

“Grandpa!” Mabel screamed, trying to run to him but Stan take her.

Even though they were no longer children Stan would carry them as if they were, he had to get them out of Gravity Falls before they ended up as Ford, or another magic practitioner.

“Grunkle Stan, we can’t leave him!” Mabel screamed, asking her Grunkle to let her go and rescue her grandfather.

“We have to go back for him!” Dipper asked on the brink of a hysteria.

Stanley wouldn’t listen them until they had left the village, they had to reach the edge of the forest.

“Stan!” The twins screamed.

“There is no time to explain it, do you understand?!” The twins were silent, Stan had never shouted at them before...

The force field began to fall faster over Gravity Falls – Bella must have realized they were fleeing – And before the twins reacted, Stan pushed them with all his might before being trapped inside the dome.

“Kids,” Stan spoke from inside the dome, “You must warn them that Bella Trix is back.” Footsteps too loud began to be heard behind his Grunkle, “Don’t worry about us, she needs us alive.”

“What do you mean by that?” Dipper asked, he felt powerless for not being able to help.

“The Journals can explain it to you, it's in his notes, look for the Mystical Objects! Look for – !” Trees began to fall. “Dipper, Mabel, I trust you two, now you must go. Tell them that Bella is out!”

A roar spread all over the place.

Dipper nodded and took Mabel by the hand, “Mabel, let's go.”

“We will come back for you.” Mabel promised.

Both twins placed their hand on the dome, it made some ripples at the touch, Stan placed his hand on the dome, joining it with his nephew's and niece's before they moved away.

Stanley saw Dipper and Mabel disappear into the darkness of the woods.

* * *

 

**ZM VKRX ZWEVMGFIV GSZG DROO XSZMTV GSVRI OREVH. GSV GIVZHFIV SFMG YVTRMH MLD!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can always leave a comment, kudo or bookmark this story.
> 
> You can always contact me on Tumblr: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also some of my future stories: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/My-Fanfics)


	3. The Tower, The Ghost, and The Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys spend their first night in the woods in a seemingly abandoned tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, good news, I'm finally on vacation, in fact, I've been for a week, but I decided to take this week to rest before I start working on my new projects, so this summer I'll be writing new chapters, new stories, thanks for your attention.
> 
> Update: July/02/2017

“Where are they?!” Gideon stormed into the room, knocking on the large doors of the new mansion built by Bella’s magic. The walls of the room were made of silver and all that is a magical being were chained to the wall, on their wrists and ankles there were chains and special fetters to neutralize the magic. Gideon approached the Stan’s. “Pines, where did you send my Marshmallow and Dipper?” Gideon approached Stanley, forcing the old men to look at him.

“Like I was going to tell to someone like you,” Stan spoke angrily.

Gideon snapped his fingers and a pair of trolls appeared to be summoned by the platinum-haired demon’s magic. The trolls took both Stan’s from the chains and turned them upside down, tossing them relentlessly.

“Hey, my glasses cost 3 – Uh, 49 dollars, you ruffians,” Stan complained.

Gideon let the trolls have fun with the old twins, their attention was directed to Bella who was very comfortably seated on the throne she had built. “Why don’t you do anything?” Gideon shouted at her.

Bella glared at the brat. “Excuse me, _Your Majesty_ , but I was trapped in that mirror for almost fifty years and using my magic to build this gigantic and majestic castle to enslave these foolish wizards and bring some friends is a very tiring process.”

“You have the magic of the moon,” Gideon mumbled.

“It's the last resort.”

“Use it!” Gideon demanded, “Have you forgotten our promise?”

Bella snorted. _Promise, promise, promise_ , for Xolotl’s sake she would have burned this smug child if it wasn’t because she still had her _code of honor_.

“I promised you your liberation and restoration of your powers and you promised me Gravity Falls and Earth as my Kingdom next to – ”

“Mabel Pines as your beloved Queen,” Bella said. Stanford and Stanley looked at Gideon. “Well, guess what? Our promise is not yet complete.” Seeing that Gideon would reply Bella decided to keep talking, “You released me and I appreciate it, but my powers haven’t yet been restored, I still have a _bond_ to that damn mirror, so we’ve only completed half of our promise.”

Gideon’s face was bright red, “That’s not fair!”

Stanford, who was under the foot of a troll, laughed, “I see, that’s why you have re-enclosed yourself in a dome made by the moon magic, even with _your powers_ you are a weak demon and the slightest presence of yours all the demons will find you and they will not have mercy on you to discover what are you planning.”

Bella rose from the throne and began to walk towards her former enemies. When she was in front of him she crouched to see the old man, “You’re still so challenging, _Stanford_ _Pines_ , messing with the wrong people. Gideon.” She called the albino boy, “I know where your _Queen_ is. They are in search of the _Mystical Objects_.”

“Mystical objects, what are those things?” Gideon asked confused.

“Trinkets.” Stanley spoke, “We use them some time to lock up this star.” Stanley nodded at Bella.

“They are ordinary objects, but with a great magical charge,” Stanford explained. “They can be used without binding to the logical laws of magic.”

“That sounds impossible.” Gideon hoped these elders didn’t make fun of him, they had made his Marshmallow fear him.

“It’s not.” Bella stood up, “Otherwise, many creatures, demons, and humans would be under my control or dead. However, there were a group of five imbeciles who used them for my imprisonment and now those brats think they can find them in this vast world.”

“And they will!” Stanley shouted.

“And at what cost?” Bella smiled wickedly, “What sacrifice do you think they should do? Where is Carla McCorkle?” Stanley and Stanford froze at the mention of that name, Stanford looked at his brother, guilt crossed his face. Bella saw the look between the brothers. “Oh, I see, how should I call her now? _Mrs. Pines_?”

“Enough!” Stanford burst into rage.

Bella smiled coldly, “You’re lucky Gideon, I think we’ll make an exception to our promise, I’ll help you find your Queen.”

“Finally.” Gideon smiled happily, like a child at Christmas, and followed Bella out of the room.

The troll chained Stanley and Ford back to the wall and retired to follow the demon and the magician.

“I’m sorry” Ford whispered once they were left alone.

“It’s in the past.” Stan sighed. 

“Did we do the right thing with Dipper and Mabel?”

“In what? Send them to the world to look for objects that may have disappeared or are not fully recharged – We did the same at their age! They are Pines, they have our magic, our skills, they will be fine.” Stan smiled. “I told them to warn Bella’s return, I doubt anyone will decide to listen to them and fight a demon... Even if a magician ignores them we still have allies who are not exactly human.”

☽✠☾

"Dipper,” Mabel whispered, they were both at the top of a tree. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” Dipper asked he was looking for information about Bella Trix in the Journals.

“I don’t know, it could have been a cricket or a mountain lion.” Mabel leaned back against one of the branches, “How do you go about finding that star?”

“I have found some notes, obviously she is a demon, but low class, the weakest of all.”

“Then tell me how our grandfather was defeated?”

"I said that she is the weakest of demons, not humans.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. And what about the Mystic Objects? Will we know where to find them?”

“There is no information, the pages don’t say anything about them. Stan said I should look for those notes.”

"I wish I knew if they were all right.” Mabel hugged herself, Dipper closed the Journal and approached his sister by putting an arm around her shoulders and giving her a warm smile.

The sound of something running toward them through the bushes set them on alert. The twins decided to remain silent until they could see the creature heading toward them. A pudgy pink body came out of the bushes.

Mabel screamed in excitement as she saw her beloved pet and she didn't hesitate to jump out of the tree to hug him, “Oh Waddles, I thought you had been captured with the others. I told you, DipDop, I heard something.”

Dipper stepped down from the tree and approached the duo. “Apparently he’s smarter than he looks.”

"Two glasses of Mabel juice work miracles.”

A rumble in the sky gave them goose bumps and lightning had broken the sky. Dipper looked at the tree, it was huge but it wouldn’t cover them from the rain so was better to find a place to wait until the rain ended. "We need to move, we must find a refuge in the forest, perhaps a cave and preferably uninhabited.” The three of them took a path to the depths of the forest, hopefully, in the morning, they would go out to find someone who can help them defeat Bella Trix.

After a few hours of walking, a few drops of rain caught them on the way, had to find a shelter or end with a cold. And although they found some caves, they doubted if they were completely free of other creatures.

“Dipper, look!” Mabel pointed to a spot in the distance, apparently had found a small cave, enough to protect them from the rain.

Upon entering the cave Dipper found that it wasn’t so deep and if there was something to hide there could be something small and harmless. “It seems perfect, we rest here tonight, we have a long way if we want to reach the nearest town.”

“You heard Dipper, Waddles, it's time to rest.” The twins snuggled close to Waddles, an advantage that her pet had to be chubby is that he was lukewarm. Mabel couldn’t help feeling a slight cold walk down the left side of her cheek. “Dipper, is it just me or is it colder on one side?”

“Curious, I thought the same.”

Both twins rose and walked to the end of the cave, hands outstretched and invoking a spark of light, when they touched the part that should be the end of the cave realized that the cave had another side more. There was something else on the other side of the wall.

With some light, they noticed that it wasn’t a stone wall, but a curtain of grass that fell like a waterfall.

Mabel was the first to cross the curtain since Dipper was inspecting the _wall_ , what would happen if there was a fall on the other side? But Mabel’s hand caught his and forced him to cross.

“Mabel – ?”

The first thing they both saw was that they were in a kind of well. And in the middle was a tower. Dipper and Mabel approached the tower finding a rotten wooden door and entered giving them access to the tower. At least here they would be protected from the rain.

“I can not believe there is a place like this.” Mabel was impressed.

Dipper digged deeper into the tower, the door seemed to have been destroyed, there were no stairs, but what was up there? “It seems to be safe.”

“Sure is, Dipping Sauce! No neighbors who bothered by loud music, what could go wrong?”

The tower began to tremble.

“Who dares to disturb the peace of this place?” A voice echoed all over the place. A blue mist began to emerge from the walls forming the figure of a man. It was a ghost, and what they noticed was the ax stuck to the back of his skull. They had certainly desecrated holy ground. “I smell in͠truder͘s.” The ghost’s beard, like his hair, turned to fire.

Dipper and Mabel parted as the ghost’s ax detached from his skull and was thrown at them. Apparently, the ax was tangible and very sharp.

“Talk now!” The ax returned to the ghost’s hands.

“We are not intruders!” Mabel screamed.

“We only found this place by accident, it was an accident! We’ll leave immediately.” Dipper took his sister out of here, if the ghost wished them far, better for them. He knew that the ghosts were very persistent with having their graves away from humans.

However, when they tried to open the door this wouldn’t yield. The ax was hurled back at them and Dipper pushed Mabel down on the ground causing one of the Journals to come out of his backpack. Mabel seeing her brother’s situation, she released Waddles to help him.

The ghost approached them, wielding the ax with intent to attack them gravely.

“ _Protectio!_ ” Mabel conjured an enchantment, causing a shield to appear before the ax attacked them, causing the ghost’s ax to tremble at the blow and come out repelled by nailing it to the ceiling.

The shield faded. The twins felt safe until they saw the ghost approaching them with intentions of capturing them with his hands.

“ _Lumberjack!_ ” Unlike when the voice of the ghost had become present and had echoed, it sounded more human.

"Damn it!” The ghost cursed.

Dipper and Mabel gave a confused look, the ghost left the tower through the walls. The twins didn’t know what to do, but they decided to follow him with luck and they would manage to escape before something else strange happened.

Once outside, even with some rain, the twins noticed that the ghost was at the top of the tower, which was now lit up, apparently arguing with someone.

“What is all that noise down there?!” A female voice yelled by the noise caused.

“They are intruders causing problems.” The ghost reported.

“ _Intruders_? Why didn’t you eliminate them?!” The twins swallowed at the implication of their murder, “Who are they?”

The ghost gave them a quick look. “They are two young men and women, twins with magical abilities... They look younger than you.”

The voice was silent for a moment. “Well, bring them up here to interrogate them, if they try anything, kill them.”

The ghost turned toward them. “You’ve heard her. Walk.”

“How are we going to go up?” Mabel asked. There was supposed to be a ladder inside the tower but the top seemed to be sealed.

The sound of footsteps and a pulley attracted their eyes upward. Before they could understand what was happening, a cascade of gold fell on them with a bucket at the end.

“What is this?” Mabel came over and touched the rope, or what appeared to be a rope.

“Is it _hair_?” Dipper looked at his sister, they were both perplexed by this situation.

“What are they waiting for? Lumberjack!” The voice yelled again.

The ghost, Lumberjack, sighed. “Hey,” He called the twins, “Just put one foot in the bucket, she'll do the rest.” With that last one, he went floating and entered through the window.

Mabel was the first to put the foot in the bucket, Dipper decided to do the same, hoped it was a good idea, they didn’t know what kind of monster was in the room above. And even if they tried to escape, the ghost would catch them.

“We are ready!” Mabel screamed, holding Waddles.

The rope began to move, being pulled by someone in the tower, must be someone strong if they could pull with all this weight. They saw the ground move away and approaching the window, with their own strength they approached the edge of the window, the light of lit candles kept illuminated the room.

First, it was Mabel who entered the room and when she looked up to see the owner of the tower, she remained silent.

The blond haired person in front of her was a woman with soft white skin, blue eyes and a purple dress. The blonde release what was actually her hair and crossed hands, she expressed a face of distrust towards them. “Who are you?”

☽✠☾

“Did you find her?”

“No.”

“Did you find her?”

“No.”

“Did you find her?”

“For the hundredth time, Gideon, no!”

Gideon sat on his throne, he was getting tired of Bella’s failures, this demon was useless, now he understood because she ended up locked in that mirror.

“If I were you I would moderate those thoughts of yours before you consider breaking our promise, I know what I am doing.”

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

“We have a promise, obviously I can read your mind, and if not, you are an open book.”

Gideon grunted and shrugged, making a light tantrum. Bella gave him a look before turning back to the mirror. The mirror that kept her locked up for years and now _her mirror_ could finally serve her after absorbing almost all her magic. With a new shape as a full-length mirror, she could see several places to get the Pines girl. Several cities to see, several creatures to recruit.

_I found her!_ The mischievous _Queen_ was in the woods, in an abandoned tower and she wasn't alone. Apart from seeing her brother, there was also a blonde woman with exaggerated hair and _familiarly_ long, and a ghost with an ax in the head. She smiled. “I think I have the perfect person for this job.”

The image in the mirror began to disappear into complete darkness where only blue eyes gleamed maliciously.

☽✠☾

Mabel had to admit that this place wasn’t bad at all, even though she thought it would be a dirty and unhygienic place, like the typical witch’s den, the tower was clean, tidy and had almost everything. Putting aside the guardian ghost and her overly long hair, _Pacifica_ , which was the girl’s name, was an ordinary girl. Pacifica was on the other side of the room with Lumberjack combing her hair. She had a cold and vain attitude, but that didn’t detract from her elegant attitude, she was like a porcelain doll.

Dipper and she had managed to reach a deal with Pacifica, she would allow them to stay for tonight and in return, they would leave early in the morning and not tell anyone about this place. Anyway, it would be difficult for anyone to believe them from a secret tower in some mountains.

“What do you think of her?”

Dipper looked toward Pacifica and returned his eyes to the Journal, continuing to search for the secret notes, “She seems like the kind of person who looks at everyone as if she were the most amazing.” The truth, he didn’t care if that girl listened to him, today he was very tired, having to deal with a demon, a ghost, and a smug girl in one night was too much.

“I think she’s pretty.”

“It’s not convenient for us to approach her. Leave her alone.”

“What you need is to socialize with people.” Mabel rose from the floor where her improvised beds were being prepared.

“I don’t think she wants to cross more than two words with us.” Dipper fell exhausted in the corner of the room.

“Then I’ll talk to her first.” Mabel got up and approached the blonde, the younger twin decided that it would be Mabel’s problem and that he would only intervene if Pacifica acted rudely with her. “Hi.” Mabel walked over to Pacifica.

The blonde opened one eye and closed it again, turning her face to the other side, “I will not give you any more blankets.” She spoke without emotion.

“No, I’m not here for that.”

“I will not give you money either.” Pacifica still ignored her.

“No, it’s nothing like that.” Mabel spoke amiably.

Pacifica sighed and opened her eyes to see her, “Then what do you want?”

“Let’s chat!”

“C _hat?_ ” Pacifica arched an eyebrow, no one had come up to her to _chat_.

“Yes, if we are going to be roommates for one night at least we must know each other, what do you think?”

Pacifica looked at the girl, she was weird and noisy, but she seemed to have no bad intentions. However a red flag appeared, people are just nice to someone when they want something in return and that would _never_ change. Pacifica looked at The Lumberjack if they tried something he wouldn’t hesitate to murder them and she could remain hidden and safe. “Fine.” She said maintaining a more relaxed and elegant posture. “You can start.”

Mabel’s smile spread across her face. “My name is Mabel Pines, the nerd sleeping in the corner is my younger twin brother, Dipper. We live with my grandfather and my Grunkle. I'm 20 years old, I love sweaters and I can burp the whole alphabet, and that includes the Greek alphabet, my pet is that little pig who tries to eat Dipper's blankets called Waddles. Now is your turn.”

Pacifica blinked a few times, this girl was talking so fast that Pacifica still couldn’t process everything she had said. “Oh, well, my name is Pacifica N–” Just a moment! Was she about to say her full name? _T_ _his could be a trap_ , she reminded herself, people can’t be as kind as Mabel. “My name is Pacifica, just that. I have lived in this tower since... I born here but – ”

“What?!” Mabel asked, terrified, “You mean you’ve never been out of here?”

Pacifica was annoyed at the interruption, “I don’t need to get out of here. Lumberjack brings me everything I need.”

“But what about music, TV shows, magazines, cute guys? Aren’t you interested in knowing what’s outside?”

“I don’t need any of that.”

“And that's why is your hair so long?”

“That is none of your business.” Pacifica folded her arms, she was beginning to lose her temper.

“Where are your parents?”

That was the last straw. “Listen, brackets, I don’t need you to be sticking your nose where it doesn’t suit you, that’s a line you shouldn’t cross. Now go back to your stupid brother on that corner before I decide to change my mind.”

The air in the room began to cool as if a blizzard had entered. A purple haze began to circle the room. Lumberjack screamed in terror and put his hands to his head, it was as if he was suffering from severe pain but that was impossible, a ghost didn’t suffer from physical pain.

The girls watched as the ghost’s blue eyes turned purple. “Dipper, wake up!” Mabel rushed next to her brother, shaking him to wake up and help them with whatever was happening.

“Mabel, what’s going... On?” Dipper had had two nights of insomnia and when he had finally managed to catch up on his dream, his twin would shake him violently, and had it not been for the ghost’s new appearance, he would have said a few words to Mabel.

“I don't know, he suddenly transformed himself in this way.”

“Well, there must be something in one of the Journal.” Dipper pulled Journal number three out of his backpack and started looking for the signs. “Here it is! Cold air, fog, smell of rot... This is a poltergeist!”

“Do it have any weakness?” Mabel asked.

Dipper read a few more pages, “Yes, it’s a ritual of exorcism.”

“Awesome,” Pacifica commented sarcastically, “You will bore him to _death_.”

“This Journal has saved many lives before yours.” Dipper shook the Journal, frowned at the bad pun of the blondie girl.

“Dipper, Pacifica, now is not the time to argue.” Mabel separated both of them.

The ax was thrown at them grazing their heads and being nailed to the wall. Dipper opened the page where the ritual of exorcism was while Mabel would give her brother the time necessary to complete the exorcism. But the ghost, now possessed, was more dangerous and an oversight could cost the lives of both and also Pacifica’s.

The ghost floated toward his ax, taking it off the wall, was it his imagination or the ax had grown larger? Had Ford and Stan ever been in this situation?

“ _A̶̛l̡l ̶̨͡of y̛o͞u͘ ͏҉w͝i̡̕͞l͘͡l f̵a̴̸ll ҉̴w͝i̛t̸͟h͟ t̸̨h̡i̴s͏ ̸̢͘to҉̛we҉̨r̛̕!̷_ ” Lumberjack’s voice sounded like a combination of his voice and the Poltergeist’s.

“This should already be working, I don’t understand why he is still possessed – Mabel, down!” Dipper shouted at his sister before the ax cut off her arm.

Luckily Pacifica had seen the attack come and managed to get Mabel safe. “Pay attention!”

“Mabel, are you okay?” Dipper approached his sister, making sure she wasn’t hurt.

“Yes, thanks to Pacifica, why the exorcism doesn’t work?”

The three of them ducked before the ax reached them again. “Mabel, I have bad news to give you, I sense the spell is not complete.”

“Amazing.” Pacifica said bitingly, this happens for being kind to once in her life. “So, what do we do? Waiting for our inevitable death?”

“All my life I have thought that the Journals had the solution to everything but they are incomplete!” Dipper was becoming hysterical. “I don’t know how to solve it!”

Mabel saw the Journal# 3, but for a small blink, she could swear she saw something. “Wait, Dipper, try to bring it closer to the ghost.” Dipper did what she had ordered, didn’t know what Mabel had in mind, in fact, most of the time she was always unpredictable. “ _It_ shines under the purple light!”

Dipper looked incredulous, but when he looked at the Journal it had words written in white ink that could only be read in the purple light that the ghost provided. “This is incredible, written in invisible ink that can only be read with ultraviolet light.” Dipper checked each page, all had additional information, “The missing notes are here.” Dipper found a note near the ritual of the exorcism, “Here it is! In order to free the person, one must recite the ritual, while helping them remember some moment of their life.”

The twins looked at each other and then at Pacifica. “No! Don’t even think about it!”

“Please! It’s the only way to save us!” Mabel begged her.

Pacifica saw between the twins and the Lumberjack, would they really trust her? “If anything happens to me, I will return like a ghost and let myself be possessed by that Poltergeist to harass you for all eternity.” Pacifica got up and approached Lumberjack.

Mabel decided to support Dipper and recite the ritual together if they needed to be noisy enough they would, they had already fought with zombies before.

“Lumberjack,” She screamed as the ghost turned toward her, “This is so disappointing, letting you be owned by a Poltergeist. What’s up? Aren’t you supposed to always boast of being a great woodsman in your life?”

“I think she should be kinder.” Dipper whispered while Mabel shrugged.

“I feel sorry for just seeing you, I thought you were stronger, you don’t know how much I regret to have met you.” Pacifica laughed cynically, the ghost roared and swung the ax toward her, Pacifica moved away before he could cut off any part of her body. “Of course, now is when you are taking all your anger against me, then tell me to the face and don’t let an idiot come and do things for you!” Before the ax would reach her head, the ghost had stopped, Pacifica saw that Lumberjack’s aura changed from purple to blue. “If this is the time, do it now!”

The twins nodded and shouted the last word of the spell, “ _Reinigung!_ ” With that last word, the purple aura that enveloped the Lumberjack began to disappear, as did the fog that covered the room, the cold air and the smell of decay. “We did it!”

“Lumberjack?” Pacifica approached her ghost, she gasped as she realized that his body was fading, “Lumberjack, what – ?”

Dipper and Mabel ran to the side of the girl and the ghost, they read the warning. ‘ _To free the person_.’ _Person_ , it was referring to someone alive, Lumberjack was a ghost so he too was exorcised.

“This is my end in this earthly world.”

“You sound like you’re dying,” The blonde laughed bitterly, “It’s ironic from where I see it.”

“After so many years, I will be meeting with my friends and family.”

Pacifica pursed her lips when she heard him speak as if he were saying goodbye, “I forbid you to leave me here alone.”

“Pacifica, you aren't an object, you are a person and deserve to be treated as such. Back then you were just a girl who didn’t know anything about life, that’s why I decided to stay.” Lumberjack smiled at the memory.

“ _You don’t command me! If I say I'll sleep here, it will be!” A seven-year-old girl shouted in a bossy tone, she was dressed in an elegant green dress and her hair was so long it seemed to touch the stone floor._

“ _Who doesn’t understand it’s you. This forest is dangerous, go back to your house, your parents must be worried.” Lumberjack had seen several strange things in this forest for a long time but never a girl who refused to leave this ruined and forgotten tower. The girl snorted and looked away, Lumberjack lost his temper. “Do what you want.” The ghost faded but didn’t leave the place, instead decided to watch what this girl would do, because with that dress and attitude so arrogant it was obvious that this girl was from a millionaire family, what was she doing here?_

_ The girl, when she was alone, curled up in a corner of the tower, checking the food she had stolen and the sweater that covered her from the cold, hoping to get to a town where she would start from scratch. Her shoes and gloves were thrown across the tower and she lay on the floor, hugging herself and covering herself with her long hair, something must have served this stupid thing. _

_ Lumberjack continued to watch her, his eyes visualizing that her wrists and ankles had red marks. “Who did that to you?” He appeared before her. _

“ _What do you care.” She answered rudely._

_ There was silence for a long time. _

“ _Is that why you don’t want to go back?” The girl didn’t move an inch. The ghost sighed, this wouldn’t be easy. “My name is Archibald, but call me Lumberjack.” He floated in front of her, waiting for some response from the girl._

_ She finally sat down and turned, “Pacifica Northwest, call me Pacifica.” _

“Thank you for listening to me that day and respecting my decision.” Pacifica spoke as the blue was beginning to fade completely.

“Sometimes I wondered if I would see the day when you finally decided to go out into the world.”

“It’s a shame you didn’t get to see it.”

Lumberjack shook his head. “Stop hiding, go and live your life however you want, follow the path you forgot years ago.”

“Shut up, Archibald.” Pacifica ordered.

Lumberjack laughed and finally disappeared.

☽✠☾

Bella Trix watched as the rain fell on the dome pretending to be under a waterfall, sitting from Gideon’s throne, but she simply loved to feel the Supreme Leader of Everything and Everyone. She saw sorcerers, wizards, and witches chained with chains that not only neutralized their magic but also absorbed it when the great moment arrived.

She felt the Poltergeist she had summoned disappear. She had underestimated those children, they had managed to find invisible notes that Fordsy wrote in his moments of paranoia. Warnings, bonus, additional information. Now she understood why when she went to the Pines House she didn't find any of the three Journals. His stupid grandchildren have them.

Although knowing Fordsy when he had attacks of paranoia the old man used to write in codes and Bella could assure that the Mystical Objects were in another language. Bella just hoped they would never get to know _him_ , because maybe then he could help them find those _trinkets._

* * *

 

** DV'OO KOZB RM GSV DLLWH DSROV GSV DLOU RH MLG SVIV **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still work on my narration so I hope I have done an understandable job.
> 
> You can always contact me on Tumblr: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also some of my future stories: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/My-Fanfics)


	4. Wolf, Are You There?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new _ally_ that is as mysterious as annoying...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As every first Sunday of every month here is this story.
> 
> I'm so sad that my vacation will end soon, two weeks and I'll be back in prison *cries, remembers Voltron S3, cries so hard* But I am also happy because in these months I could write more chapters of my other stories that will soon be updated, most likely it will be this month.
> 
> And for those who were waiting here are two characters that we all love, at least in my case.
> 
> See you soon, my dear!
> 
> Update: August/06/2017
> 
> You can always contact me on Tumblr: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also some of my future stories: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/My-Fanfics)

Dipper waited outside the tower. After arguing with Pacifica, Mabel persuaded her to accompany them until they could find her a safe place, by her standards. Though Mabel liked Pacifica, he didn't like that arrogant attitude of hers.

“I am an expert on this. To all my friends I combed their hair.” Pacifica had refused at first, but the blonde girl ended up allowing Mabel to help comb her hair in a braid so her hair wouldn't bother her ( _them_ ) during the travel, “Don't want to cut your hair off? You look nice with long hair but I assure you you would look beautiful with short hair.”

“Leave it that way.” There was no point in trying to cut it off, as if she hadn't tried it before.

Mabel gave her a confused look and picked up a few strands of hair to accommodate them. When she finished braiding her hair, her braid hung down to her feet. The brunette let Pacifica prepare and take whatever things she might need. She took Waddles and used the makeshift rope that Dipper had created from the blankets. It felt strange to have to wear Pacifica's hair.

“What are she doing up there?” Dipper wondered, taking Waddles and dropping him on the ground to help Mabel down.

“I guess this is just a goodbye, this place should mean a lot to her.”

Dipper looked at his sister, he knew she was still worried about everyone in Gravity Falls, “The Shack is fine, I bet even Gompers's fine.” Mabel smiled slightly, but it meant a lot to Dipper.

“Hey!” The twins raised their heads, Pacifica was in the window, she wore a purple dress, and only had a bag hanging from her waist, “I hope you'll help me down and I won't forgive you if I get hurt.”

Dipper snorted. This was going to be a hard day. He was sure of that.

If it wasn't because the sunlight was bothering Pacifica's face, it was that her shoe had muddy and was disgusting. All Dipper wanted was to hit his head on the nearest tree. Mabel was patient, Dipper wasn't. He prayed to come to the nearest village they could find. If they were lucky, there might be a wizard who could help them and leave Pacifica. Was it too much to ask?

“Dipper!” The brunette raised his head, Mabel pointed to a wooden mural. _Civilization!_

Mabel approached Pacifica to inform her that they had managed to find a town, she noticed how tense Pacifica was but she tried to hide it.

“Now it's only necessary to find a magician who can help us.”

“Yes, Sir!”

The twins clashed their fists. Pacifica saw between the twins and then the town, too long had left her hometown, would anyone recognize her? 

“Pacifica, are you okay?” 

The blonde woke up from her thoughts, she had to appear normal or Mabel would start to suspect something, she still didn't know if Mabel was also psychic or she was an open book. “I am.” Pacifica walked away from Mabel walking toward the city.

“You should stop trying to be nice to her. She doesn't want to have anything to do with us.” Dipper said to Mabel.

“I know she behaves rude,” Mabel tried to smile at her brother's frown, “But I'm sure she's scared, I mean, she just lived with a ghost since she was a girl. She didn't have a family to take care of her properly.”

Dipper massaged his temple, his sister was too kind, “She'll stay _here_ , so forget about her, we have others to worry about.”

Mabel followed her brother, maybe he was right. But reading people was something she had inherited from her grandmother.

“Do you think we should go to the police station?”

“And if we have breakfast?” Mabel interrupted. “We can't continue on our epic journey if we have an empty stomach. Also look at Waddles, the little one hasn't eaten anything since yesterday.”

Pacifica and Dipper looked at each other, both weren't happy and it was just a time bomb about to explode if they continued together.

“Mabel, you can go to breakfast if you want, I'll find someone who can help us. See you later.” Dipper stepped away from them.

“What do you say, _Paz_?” Mabel turned to the blond girl, waiting for her positive response.

Pacifica pursed her lips, “Yes, I don't see why not, I'm hungry too, there must be a place where we can eat decently.”

“I thought I saw a small dinner, I hope they have pancakes, of course they aren't comparable to Grunkle Stan's, but – ”

Mabel continued to talk about everything she did in the morning when she was in the Shack, although Pacifica didn't listen to her, she looked around, they were all faces unknown to her, this place apparently didn't have much communication with the outside. Everything would be fine. Why was there false hope? Life was never fair. Not at all. Why on earth did she think everything would be all right for _once_ in her life?

Just to have seen Mabel and how she ate so wildly she had captured the attention of most people in the dinner. Pacifica tried to move a couple of chairs, but Mabel trying to start a conversation with her was difficult to avoid calling her every moment, “ _Paz,_ _look what I can do._ ” Or “ _Waddles is cute when he eats, don't you think, Paz?_ ” Oh my God! What if this silly screamed _her name_? Pacifica tries to stay calm, no one would recognize her because she didn't exist for a long time.

The sound of the small bell at the front door caught Pacifica's attention; Dipper had come in and to see his expression they understood that he had no luck in getting help.

“No one listens to me, no magician.” Dipper was talking while he ate, completely angry because nobody wanted to hear him, this was a critical situation! “They don't even feel excited when I mention hidden codes and help in deciphering them.”

“Decipher hidden codes? That sounds fascinating.” 

The trio turned their heads in surprise, they were in the corner of the place, it was impossible that someone had heard them. 

“I'm at the next table." 

Mabel was the first to turn and in fact with them in the corner there was another table, when it appeared there? They had no idea.

The mysterious man was sitting next to them, in his left hand holding a newspaper and on the right a piece of bread with butter, he wore a purple shirt, purple pants, black dress shoes and a bowler hat, he had his lilac hair back, they couldn't distinguish well his face, he also had an umbrella and a bag of bread. This was _strange_ , this man was a _tad_ peculiar, not to say extravagant, now they couldn't take their eyes off him, this guy must have been the first person they saw on entering, how come he went unnoticed?

“Sorry, who are you?” Dipper asked, trying to sound as courteous as possible.

“Just a casual person casually having breakfast at this casual restaurant, don't worry about me you won't see me again in this travel but listen to me young Dipper Pines – ” Dipper was startled to hear his name, this strange man said that they had never met before, however, how did he know his name? The man looked up and all three saw that his eyes were purple with a black horizontal pupil, “Don't worry about me, we _won't_ hurt Stanford's grandchildren, the Pines are a good family and good friends of _ours_. Going back to our old conversation, you're looking for someone who knows about hidden codes, right?”

Dipper approached the man, “Do you know how to help me?”

“No, you just attracted my curiosity, but I know someone who can help you.” He smiled as if he had said the best joke, “ _We all_ know what the Journals contains.” A soft, delicate laugh came from the man's lips. “You know those symbols but you don't know what they mean.”

No, he didn't know. This series of images he had seen several times by the Shack and his grandfather had taught him to interpret them, although these hidden messages didn't correspond to the order he had learned. “You couldn't help us? You seem to know my family and the codes.” Dipper asked the purple man, he might have been a Ford's ally in the past.

“Sorry boy, I'm _not_ who you should be looking for.” The twins inclined their heads in dismay. The man pulled out a purple pocket watch, “Look at the time, it's too late and I'm very punctual in my business, with your permission, I withdraw.” The man took the umbrella and the bag of bread with him, taking out a pair of bills from his pocket and leaving them on the table, and before he left he turned to see the Pines, “That person is located about ten minutes from this place. You better hurry up he likes to be _everywhere_. His name is Bill Cipher, when you find him tell him that his friend Tad Strange says _hello_.”

Tad Strange took the doorknob from the front door and went out, but the three of them could see how his bowler hat was seen among the people until he disappeared.

☽✠☾

Bella bit her thumb to the point that she almost made it bleed. She tasted some of her own metallic taste.

Was she nervous? Of course _not_. She _wasn't_ when she was _expelled_ from Nightmare Realm, _nor_ when she _fought_ to survive in this world of humans, _much less_ when they _locked_ her in the mirror; _She wasn't before and_ _she_ _wouldn't be now_. She was just formulating a plan as quietly and simply as possible.

Those brats had found a demon. It was fortunate that was Tad Strange, The Bettor Demon, he wasn't her problem, yet. Maybe Tad didn't know she was free from her prison. But her problem is that if the damn square had given them Bill's location her plans for revenge were complicated because she hadn't yet contemplated getting to the part where she will torture the stupid triangle.

It was no secret that all the demons were feared by the strength and scope of the powers they manifested, but Bill Cipher was mad and she already had a _history_ of problems with the triangular demon, besides being the brain of her confinement and expulsion. She didn't want him in her affairs until her powers were restored.

Gideon watched the demon woman walking, if Bella Trix is not an all-powerful demon, right now she seemed to be shaking with fear.

☽✠☾

As Tad Strange had told them they found a camp of gypsies far from the village. The difficult part was to follow the path with Pacifica, the girl apparently didn't feel very comfortable with people and was about to ask to return to the tower. Of course Mabel objected, convincing her that if they followed the path they could reach a nice, modern city.

Dipper rolled his eyes, he wouldn't hesitate for a second to return to the tower and leave Pacifica but that would be to waste valuable time.

The gypsy camp was composed of twenty gypsy wagons and some 60 or 70 gypsies playing musical instruments, some children running and playing, men and women laughing and drinking.

Mabel approached an old woman who was knitting a long tablecloth, the gracious old woman stopped her work to listen to her, “We wanted to know if you knew a person named Bill Cipher.”

Music and laughter stopped. The three suddenly found themselves surrounded by gypsies, for a moment they thought they would attack them but all the gypsy camp did was point away from the camp. If Bill Cipher was there or they simply wanted them to leave, the two ideas were better than being surrounded by hundreds of weapons, they didn't look dangerous, but the fear on their faces gave them nothing to think about. When people fear they tend to be _treacherous._

“That was awful.” Dipper breathed easily once they left the camp.

“I don't understand, we are looking for Bill Cipher, we aren't asking for gold or anything valuable.” Pacifica tried to look calm, but she had only been terrified.

Mabel stopped halfway, “To have mentioned this Bill Cipher must be serious, right? Dipper, does the Journal say anything about Bill or Tad?”

Dipper began to think, trying to remember if the other two Journals mentioned something about Bill Cipher or Tad Strange, almost every page talked about people, creatures, and places that Ford and Stan had known. “I'm not really sure about Tad Strange. But it seems to me that Ford wrote something about Bill Cipher.” Dipper took out the first Journal he thought he had seen, “This says something.”

“What did you find?” Both girls approached Dipper, trying to see the page Dipper was reading at the time.

The page showed a triangle, it was filled with black except for a white hole that looked like an eye and the pupil that was also stuffed with black. “Bill Cipher, Dream Demon and the Mind – ”

“Are they demons? But our enemy _is_ a demon!” Mabel was surprised.

“That man named Tad Strange couldn't have gone unnoticed by us if he dressed so luxuriously.” On the one hand Pacifica was relieved that the man wasn't one of the bounty hunters, on the other hand, she was now distressed. In what trouble had she gotten into following Dipper and Mabel? So dangerous was what they were looking for?

Mabel thought better, it's true that Tad Strange wore too many shades of purple and dressed too formal, like Bella Trix's suit. Was it some kind of protocol or just the demons like to wear so _flashy_?

Dipper had read of the demons thanks to the stories of Stan and Ford and had it not been for Tad and Bella he could have assured them that they had all left Earth. “Okay, he could be an old friend.”

“Or a foe.” Pacifica contemplated the other option, “Does your town have no problem with a Xtrich?”

“ _Trix_.” Dipper corrected her, “Mabel, he can decipher the codes, he can help us. We need to try.”

Mabel bit her lower lip, maybe Dipper was right, wasn't she supposed to be the optimist? “That's the attitude, DipDop. Now let's get to know that Bill Cipher.”

Even when the questions of why this demon lived so far away from the other gypsies remain unknown, until they meet Bill Cipher they would give him the benefit of the doubt. He couldn't be that bad, could he? They expected that.

Finding what appeared to be his wagon wasn't difficult, with all that gold and black that adorned it. The colors were the only thing that protruded from the wagon, before knocking on the door they inspected the wagon, to their bad luck this had no windows so they didn't know what they were going to find inside. They hesitated at the door.

Dipper was the first to knock on the door, waiting a few seconds but no one opened them. Maybe Bill Cipher had left, they wouldn't admit it aloud but that was a great relief... Which lasted about five seconds before the door opened but no one came out to greet them.

“Hello?” Mabel was the first to enter followed by Dipper, although Pacifica didn't know if also to enter or to stay outside with the gypsies, “Bill Cipher?”

Everything was dark, they had to walk carefully or they could hit something and fall. Pacifica noticed an illumination of a candle in the center of a table. And on the table was a glass of wine alongside a bottle.

“Don't you think it's rude to raid a house?” Unlike when they heard Tad's soft voice or Bella's melodious one, this was sharp and malicious.

A black gloved hand rose on the other side of the table, turning off the single candle light and leaving the three humans in the dark for a few seconds before more candles were lit with the only peculiarity that it wasn't a red color, rather a sapphire blue. The three of them heard footsteps on every side of the wagon and then something heavy fell on the table. Their eyes focused on the man standing on the piece of furniture.

Dressed in a black coat and embroidered gold lines pretending to be bricks, a gold waistcoat under his coat and beneath this a white shirt, black pants that could well be appreciated how tall he was, his hands were on his waist and were black gloved, a cane of the same color hung from his long arm, a golden bow tie, long black boots, long golden hair tied with a black ribbon fell on his left shoulder, a top hat floating on the blonde head. His face could have been passed by a, maybe, 26-years-old, sharp teeth that peered through that cat smile and his right eye being the only one visible with an amber feline pupil and that where the sclera was to be white was black.

“Are you Bill Cipher?” Pacifica's voice showed how impressed she was, she already had the idea of seeing a floating triangle, not a man-like being.

The Cheshire Cat's smile was small, compared to the smile that this tanned-skin man possessed. The man approached them as if he were inspecting them, “Well, well, well, Pine Tree, Shooting Star, and what a surprise, Llama is with us.”

“Wait a minute, how did you call us?” Dipper asked. They used these nicknames when they were children, in their imaginary adventures Pine Tree and Shooting Star were their key names. Their grandmother told them that way and she always gave them toys or things with those symbols in them.

Pacifica however seemed offended by the nickname given to her.

“You didn't hear badly if it's what you're asking, I said – ”

“I know what you said.” Dipper interrupted, maybe it was a bad idea watching Bill stop smiling, “But my name is – ”

"Mason ' _Dipper_ ' Pines and Mabel Pines. I know both of you, Stanford's and Carla's grandchildren.” Bill walked away from them to walk to the table, drinking from his glass of wine, “They invited me when you two were born, also when your father was born. Cute birthmark by the way, Pine Tree." Bill said mockingly and Dipper put his hands quickly on his forehead.

“Did you meet my grandparents?”

“Shooting Star, I know a lot of things.” Bill had disappeared from sight to be among them, “I am the master of the mind, I know your deepest _thoughts_ ,” In Bill's left hand had appeared a blue flame that had the shape of a broken heart, “Your deepest _goals_.” A second flame came with the appearance of three books and a fourth in the middle, “And your deepest _fears_.” The right hand showed a flame in the shape of a bell.

Pacifica waved her hand away from Bill and fading the blue fire, “And?”

“Nothing.” Bill shrugged, “It's been a long time, I haven't seen some of my old friends. How were Hot Pants' last moments? She came to see me a week before she left for the Afterlife. I feel she already knew.” Bill seemed to look into the distance and then showed the twins a smile, causing them chills, “What do I _owe_ this visit?”

The light from the candles became stronger and completely illuminated the whole wagon. Their surprise was great when they realized that the interior wasn't what they expected, they were surrounded by a pile of books, bottles and scrolls, was this some kind of illusion?

Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, Bill made them nervous but he was the only chance they had. “Do you know someone called Bella Trix?”

Bill didn't stop smiling when he heard the name of his old _enemy_ , “So she managed to escape, I thought that cave would be enough to contain her, how did she?”

“A boy from my town, Gideon Gleeful.” Dipper reported.

“They are here to ask for your help.” Pacifica spoke, the demon intimidated her but she had known worse people before, “Dipper brings a book containing the codes.”

Dipper approached Bill Cipher, showing the Journal and invoking an ultraviolet light to show him the invisible ink, “We need your help to decipher some codes that are between the pages, I know the codes but they aren't the order that my grandfather has taught me.”

Bill held the book in his hands, checking every page, “Of course you weren't going to interpret my codes so easily.”

“Your codes?”

“I taught Stanford all the knowledge about these creatures in the Three Journals and how to jail Bella Trix. That was very clever Sixer, create your own code changing order.” _Damn four eyes, this is considered plagiarism._

“Does that mean you can help us?” Dipper asked hopefully.

Bill smiled, “Of course I'll help you Pine Tree, just that it's not as simple as you might imagine.”

“What do you mean?”

“Shooting Star, the demons don't give _anything_ free without getting something in return. It's nothing personal, it's a business. Your grandfather and great-uncle knew of my rules when they met me, some things are lost along the way, but compared to what we have now, what they left behind is not so important.”

Mabel didn't like Bill to talk about her family like that, “But we have nothing you can want.”

“Of course you have it. If you want the messages revealed just give me a _puppet_.”

Dipper looked at him strangely, “A puppet?”

“What would you need it for?” Mabel felt a slight pressure in her stomach.

“There are businesses where I can't show myself again – ”

“Like a triangle or man-like?” Pacifica raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms.

Bill laughed and looked at the blonde, “I only use that form when I need to make the deal with a fool. Sixer drew me that way because that's how we mostly met. The truth is that my true form could torment you all your life, if I wanted now I could become anything, I could be a dragon, a wolf, even a woman. I am a being of pure energy, there are no limits for me, everything is valid, _reality is only an illusion_. What do you say, Pines? I help you, you help me, everyone wins! Only once you two save your precious town, the puppet must stay.”

What to choose? On the one hand Dipper wanted to help his family though if it meant selling his soul. He felt Mabel take the sleeve of his jacket, he looked at Bill Cipher, the demon already had a hand extended towards him, “I – ”

“Forget it!” Pacifica interrupted and stood between them and Bill, the demon's gaze turned serious when he saw Llama's eyes, even she was surprised at what she was doing. Pacifica had heard enough, “You don't want a puppet, you want _slaves_.” Pacifica took Dipper's and Mabel's wrists and left, “By the way,” Pacifica said after taking the doorknob and opening it, “Your friend Tad Strange says _hello_.” With anger she left taking the twins and closing the door with a strong whip.

Bill was still in the same position. After a few seconds of silence a laugh was born of him.

_Northwest_ had the guts to face him, she _wasn't_ a coward like her family. Gods, she liked him!

A smile on his face showed the sharp teeth of the demon, those children had forgotten something important.

He was always watching.

☽✠☾

Once out of the wagon Pacifica walked leading the twins away from that place, a few moments later she released both hands and walked alone.

That was unusual and intense. Mabel couldn't believe it, Pacifica had defied a demon for them. Something in her chest felt warm. Dipper wanted to be angry with Pacifica but he was actually relieved that the blonde girl had come into action. But also frustrated, what if Bill was his only option? He shook his head. No, Bill wasn't the only solution, there had to be another way.

Pacifica leaned on the nearest tree, what the hell happened there? She simply lost her temper when she heard Bill speak that way. It was the same way _they_ talked to her. She tried to disappear those memories from her mind. _You are free. You're far, far away, It's been years, No one will recognize you_ , it was the phrases she'd been repeating since she'd left the tower.

“Pacifica?” Mabel had moved closer to her.

Pacifica had to rebuild her composure quickly. “Don't say anything, I just did it because I couldn't stand the ugly wallpaper of his wagon.” The blonde looked away so that Mabel didn't see her blushing. Though it was obvious that Mabel had seen her.

Mabel smiled warmly. Pacifica cared for her, for them. “Dipper,” Mabel approached her twin, “Maybe we don't need Bill, we find the codes by accident, maybe in the same way we can decipher them. What do you say? Do we try?"

Dipper looked at Mabel, he would have liked to find a quick way to decode the messages to end the agony of Gravity Falls, but Mabel was asking for time to think things through. He let out a sigh and turned to Mabel, they liked to discover mysteries, didn't they? This was another challenge and with Mabel's help, he would solve it. “Yes. Together.”

“What do you say Pacifica? Are you joining us?” Mabel shouted at the blonde who was still turning her back on them.

“As if it were possible.” Pacifica said leaning against the tree.

Mabel smiled at her brother, “Give her time, she'll get used to us.”

His sister, always so positive about everything.

For the next hour they decided to keep walking, the edge of the forest would be near and they would take all possible shortcuts and rest that night, the last night in the forest. Leaving aside the fight with a possessed ghost, two demons, one of whom was weird and the other a sociopath, and a strange girl with her long hair, the trip had been quiet.

Mabel had decided to create a campfire, with Waddles' help, the official logger. Fortunately they still had some meat from breakfast yesterday in one of Mabel's bags, that would be their dinner until they could continue until tomorrow and buy something.

“That looks delicious.” Dipper commented after a while of watching the bacon fry in the fire.

“Not only does it look, it also tastes delicious.” Mabel gave a slight blow with her elbow to Pacifica, “I'm an expert in the kitchen.”

“You seem to be an expert on almost everything.” The blonde said.

“Modesty aside, I'm good at cooking, combing, and making dresses.” Mabel counted on each of her special abilities. "Mini golf, – "

“Mini golf?” Pacifica had never heard of that before.

“It is the sport of mini-champions, I could win even with my eyes closed – ”

Their conversation was interrupted when in the distance there was a howl that echoed through the forest, followed by others. The wolves must have been attracted by the smell of meat. They quickly took their things and fled, leaving dinner to distract the wolves, they had to find a cave or a high place to get away from the wolves.

“Did we lose them?” Mabel is the one who was most worried, she had a pig with them.

“That seems to be.” Before Dipper could take another step, a large wolf stood in front of them, black as night, fangs that could tear his flesh in seconds and their four legs with sharp claws.

The three took a step back before the wolf howled calling the others, this must be the alpha. A cry from Pacifica made them turn, the other wolves had arrived. Dipper and Mabel thought of some spell that might serve to protect themselves.

The alpha wolf grunted as it was about to jump towards Mabel – But the wolf's fangs never touched Mabel or Waddles. Instead of hearing Mabel's cry was replaced by the wolf's wailing howl.

A red shadow stood between them and the wolves, in their hands was an ax with which they had avoided the bite of the alpha wolf.

“Don't even think about it!” The shadow shouted turning to the left when they saw one of the wolves move. “Go away!” The red shadow demanded, the wolves didn't move from their place, the shadow raised the ax, “I said: _Go away!_ ” This time the wolves obeyed because of the ax owner's grunt, all three saw a wolf howling on the hill, the shadow turned toward them, “We have to leave quickly, they may change their minds.”

Without a moment's hesitation they followed that person, running to their side. They couldn't see who had saved them, or expected that to be.

They came to a cave, it wasn't so deep, but they were safe when the shadow had moved a stone sealing the entrance. That put them in alert mode, maybe that shadow had saved them but didn't know their true intentions.

“Thanks for your help with the wolves,” Mabel was catching her breath, “Can we know the name of our savior?”

The person underneath the red cape turned around with their back and lowered the hood revealed a great red hair, but that wasn't what caught their attention, a pair of ears protruding from the tangled hair, the ears seemed to be wolf even there was a tail of the same color to see how the cap was removed completely and seeing below they saw wolf-ish legs covered by the same red fur. Their rescuer finally finished removing their hood and they noticed that their arms were covered with the same red hair.

_ They had fallen into the clutches of a werewolf. _

“Who are you?” Mabel swallowed. Never before had she seen a werewolf, this wasn't like her romantic novels. This wasn't fiction, this was real life.

“It's normal for you not to recognize me.” The person under the red cap spoke, looking sad. “It was many years ago when I left and you were still children.” The werewolf turned toward them; Dipper's and Mabel's eyes widened as they saw the werewolf's emerald eyes.

“Wendy?!”

The friend who spent hours playing in the Shack, the girl who participated in the competitions of the woodsman's, the redhead who was going to visit her grandmother one day and never returned, the same Wendy Corduroy that had been lost in the forest many years ago.

Wendy didn't expect the sudden hug in which the Pines twins had caught her, she hugged them with the same intensity taking care of not to hurt them with her claws, after long time of receiving this curse these tears were of happiness.

“You are alive!” Mabel didn't let go of her old friend, even when she looked like a wolf the green eyes couldn't deny the fact that it was Wendy Corduroy, “We could never find you.”

“Everyone thought you were dead or kidnapped.”

The redhead looked down, “I didn't want to cause agony in my family, neither to you.” She broke away from the twins, “When I finished visiting my grandmother I thought that nothing bad would happen to me if I went back down the forest path. It was a dumb decision. It was already very late when I saw an old woman picking some plants near a river I thought she needed help but as soon as she saw me she started screaming to scare me and I ran until I reached the town, I still remember that it was Full Moon when that happened and I saw my reflection in the well near my house, the terror seized me when I saw that my face and my body were covered with fur.”

“Why did you leave? Everyone would have done their best to help you.” Dipper approached his friend.

“I considered it several times, I wanted to run inside my house but I had a problem and I couldn't control the wild side of the wolf I had in me. What could happen if I came back? If I hurt my father or my brothers? Or even if I hurt some of you guys, what if they didn't recognize me? I asked myself so many questions and thought it was best to protect them if I left.”

“So you stayed, you decided to hide from everyone.”

Wendy turned to see the blonde girl with her friends, “Yes, I did it. I wasn't going to let myself be possessed by the wolf. I started to fight the wolves and myself. Sometimes they obey me, _sometimes_. When I had the opportunity I stole from the travelers some belongings and protected them in the way of their attacks. It seemed fair to me.”

Mabel was calmer. Wendy was fine, nothing bad had happened to her as they was reported in town. Wendy was a strong and brave woman, she was always her role model. “Glad to see you again, Wendy. We missed you.”

The redhead leaned against the stone wall, falling slowly to sit on the floor, closing her eyes and smiling, showing her fangs. “The same guys, the same.”

☽✠☾

Gideon didn't look away from Bella, the demon kept walking around the room, sometimes standing by the window, sometimes just looking at the mirror. That started boring him and ending his patience.

Unlike Gideon, Bella had to think of a plan quickly. She was grateful that Bill was still the same idiot, so the twins would reject him and avoid him if they had the chance. That was a point in her favor, without Bill's help the codes would still be a mystery and Stanford's grandson would take days, weeks, and even months to get the correct order.

Then she would have her perfect opportunity and everything would be absolutely magnificent! Everything would go according to plan!... It would be great if it weren't because they ( _Strange and Cipher_ _)_ weren't the only demons on Earth. If this werewolf woman would take them out of the woods and go to the cities, there would be more chances that a demon would find them and make a deal with them, not all behaved as idiots as Bill.

Bella had many enemies of her who wanted revenge. She had to get rid of that werewolf.

She needed someone who could sow doubts and bring desperation to the small group.

☽✠☾

Throughout the night Mabel had informed the werewolf about everything that had happened in Gravity Falls during her absence, telling a few things about her family, her cousin's business, her father and the Mayor Tyler, and the magic her younger brother had mastered, ending with what happened last night.

Wendy promised them to leave the forest as soon as possible to find another sorcerer. The redhead turned off the candle lights, leaving only two candles on, giving good lighting, wishing them good night and telling Dipper to rest from that Journal.

Dipper observed some pages under ultraviolet light, Stanford had written warnings and useful advice on some other creatures but nothing about the correct order of codes. His eyes grew heavy and it was difficult to keep them open. With a sigh of frustration and fatigue, he closed the Journal and dropped his head on the pillow Wendy had offered him. He took one last look at his sister and Pacifica who lay near Wendy, Mabel using Wendy's thick tail as a pillow and Waddles was beside her, Pacifica was wearing her own hair as a pillow and blanket. Feeling calmer he closed his eyes to enter the dream world. Maybe it was just him or any effect from the dim light of the cave, he could swear that everything around him was turning gray.

Mabel woke when a faint ray of sun fell on her eyes. Lazily she got up and rubbed her eyes, looking on both sides. Dipper was still asleep, but Wendy, Pacifica, and Waddles weren't there and the stone that sealed the exit of the cave had finally been removed. She decided to get up and find her friends leaving her brother to rest. She had to help Dipper sort things out quickly, it was a promise between twins and _promises never break_ , that's what her grandmother used to say.

When she came out of the cave, she saw Wendy sharpening her ax, “Wendy!” She approached the redhead, “Have you seen Waddles or Pacifica?”

“I think your friend went to the stream that is near here, said something about washing her hair, your pig was with her.”

“Understood and noted my Captain.”

Mabel moved away from Wendy who had approached a tree to start cutting it down. She finally saw the creek and in fact there was Pacifica with her hair untied and wet and it seemed she had problems with Waddles.

“Come on, get off me.” Pacifica hadn't planned for the pig to accompany her to the stream, although she tried to escape and walk fast, Waddles found a way to find her, he was too persistent as his owner.

“He seems to like you.” Waddles ran to Mabel as soon as he heard her voice.

“Keep dreaming.” Pacifica ignored Waddles' grunts and the soft strokes that Mabel gave him, she had never had pets, she didn't know how special a bond could become such a thing, that thought made her hold herself.

“I'm serious. I want to thank you for yesterday, well, I said thank you but not in the most appropriate way, I must give you something, not every day you save someone from a demon. What would you like?” Seeing that the blonde didn't respond, looking down she preferred to get up and leave, leaving Pacifica a moment alone, “You know, you don't have to pretend that something doesn't bother you, we all feel anger sometimes, it's normal, if you need anything, _anything_ , just call me.”

Pacifica saw Mabel, maybe she was acting too rude to the girl, Mabel was trying to be nice. Maybe it was time to change, _maybe_. “Mabel,” The Pines girl stopped when Pacifica called her, “My hair is still wet, but most are dry, I think you can thank me if you help me braid it.”

Mabel's smile filled her face, she knew that little by little if she showed kindness Pacifica would do the same, “Don't worry, leave everything to Mabel, I'll make you look like a movie star.”

_Don't regret now_ , she repeated, although to see Mabel's happiness she couldn't help smiling, this was a silly thing but it made Mabel smile and she thought that maybe it was time to try to enjoy the same as the brunette.

Dipper left the cave, judging by the sun noon was still to be seen. The sound of a falling tree drew his attention. Wendy had managed to knock a large tree out of the cave, he knew the girl was too strong, her wolf form must have given her more strength.

“Good morning Wendy.”

“Morning Dips,” The wolf-woman jumped from the fallen tree, “Did you sleep well?”

“You could say, thanks also for letting us stay in your cave.”

“Don't worry about that, it's the least I can do for you and Mabel.”

“Need help to chop down the tree?”

“You should avoid doing the least possible damage. Besides this helps me to continue my training, I must take advantage of this force or somehow those wolves could eat me alive.”

Dipper tried to remember the last time he had a normal conversation with Wendy, just him and her, but his mind only recalls embarrassing moments. Now it all seemed as if there had never been a crush on her when he was still a child.

“Tell me about this woman, Bella Trix.” Wendy asked, “She is a demon, right?”

Dipper nodded, “Yesterday we also met two others, one was a man obsessed with purple, seemed to be very kind and gentle, his name is Tad Strange and the next was Bill Cipher, but this turned out to be crazier than Strange or Trix, in addition to his strange God complex.”

Wendy laughed, “Goodness, you will have an epic adventure.”

“So it seems.”

“These codes are like the ones you and your grandfather drew, right?”

Dipper nodded and thought of something, maybe it was silly, but it was worth asking, “By any chance, you don't know anyone who can help us, a traveler you remember who looks smart enough, maybe Stanford wasn't the only one with knowledge in these codes.” Bill seemed like the kind of person who liked to deal with everyone.

Wendy closed her eyes trying to remember some travelers but most of the magicians didn't need her help, “I'm sorry Dipper, I don't think there's anyone who looked like a sorcerer or wizard... Don't make that face, it's not time to give up. I'm going to get you out of this forest and in the city you can find someone to help you.”

“You sound like my sister.”

“I can't help it, I saw you both grow up and I'm going for a few years to see you going on an epic adventure looking for lost objects all over the world. Weren't the adventures you always longed for?”

“I hadn't planned to have ghosts, demons, wolves, and blondes with long hair.”

“Said that way sounds weird even to me.” Wendy glanced toward the stream, “It seems that Mabel likes Pacifica.”

“Mabel likes everyone, she's too social butterfly for her sake.”

“Mabel sees Pacifica as if she is going to get lost at any moment in this vast forest, as if she were a lost puppy. I don't blame her, the girl looks too tense.”

Dipper cast a strange glance at the wolf-woman, “I will never understand women.”

☽✠☾

“How close are you to them?” Bella asked through the mirror, on the other side of the glass was a dark image that fluttered like the waves that formed in the water.

“Enough to attack them by surprise, do I now?” The dark shadow asked impatiently.

“No, hold on to the plan. Have you changed already?”

“Of course, I had to get rid of the alpha.”

“Don't forget, they hate that girl and if their alpha fights against her the others will, if she realizes that you're an impostor is when we can catch them.”

“When she attacks me severely, the wolves won't forgive this offense.” No matter how she looked, if she killed the alpha the other wolves wouldn't accept her as a wolf.

“Then you'll leave them behind and bring the Pines girl with you.”

“Can I see the bloodshed?”

“If you manage to reach our agreed time.”

The shadow disappeared and the mirror became a normal mirror again. Bella exhaled wearily, she wished she could sit on her beloved throne, but unfortunately Gideon had monopolized it for himself by leaving the demon standing. She wanted to rest, so long ago that she didn't have to deal with a damn Shape Shifter.

☽✠☾

When everyone had finished breakfast, courtesy of Wendy's hunt, the werewolf decided it was time for the twins to continue their journey. Dipper tried to remember some features of the road in the forest, just in case they needed to return.

Not an hour passed when the howls of the wolves became present.

“Don't turn away from me.” Wendy warned. They accelerated the pace, Wendy was at the head of the group, constantly watching both sides of the road, there were still no wolves approaching however that didn't mean that they didn't want to follow them all the way to the forest exit. The howls were heard closer this time. Wendy stopped suddenly, causing the other three young's to stop, “Something is wrong.”

Pacifica was the first to realize what she meant, in front of them was the black wolf that had tried to devour them last night, but didn't understand why the wolf woman had stopped, yesterday didn't seem so dubious when she faced the wolf.

“You aren't a wolf.” Wendy whispered more to herself than to her friends, “Your smell doesn't belong to wolves!”

The black wolf snarled which sounded more like the wolf was laughing and pounced on them. Wendy stood up and struck it with her ax, moving the wolf away from them. The black wolf attacked again, trying to bite her and scratch her, Wendy managed to dodge all attacks but couldn't harm the wolf, it may have managed to deceive the others in the pack, but never her.

“Why isn't she attacking it?” Dipper asked worried about Wendy's situation and why only the wolf attacked her.

“If she does, she'll lose and the other wolves will not hesitate for a second to jump on her neck.”

The three of them looked at each other, it hadn't been any of them, the voice was – “Bill!” Dipper yelled as he saw the golden-haired demon sitting on a tree branch and even had a cup of tea floating beside him.

“The first and only majestic Bill Cipher!”

“What are you doing here?”

“Enjoying the show, what else does it look like? Everyone here is witnessing the struggle for the survival of the most able.”

“Did you summon this impostor?” Wendy accused when she had managed to dodge a powerful attack of the black wolf.

“Of course not, I would never resort to dirty tricks like these, this has Bella's signature and seal, that crazy fool. She is so weak that she had to hire someone much weaker to do her job. And of all possible creatures, she called a Shape-Shifters.”

“Shape-Shifters?”

“As its name indicates it's a creature that can shift into anything that comes to mind and even a combination of both, something repugnant. If she attacks the other wolf the others will believe that she practically tries to tame them and take the alpha status, and no matter that she resembles a wolf, the others will never accept an intruder in their pack.”

“How can I stop this Shape-Shifter?” Wendy asked taking the ax handle to avoid the wolf claw.

“There are several ways, but I think the best way to get rid of it once and for all is – ”

“Wait!” Dipper shouted, “We will not fall into your trap. You want something in return, right?”

“Pine Tree, it hurts that our relationship begins with mistrust.” Bill pretended to be hurt but then winked at the boy, “Don't do that look, Kid, I don't want anything from Red, or from you.”

“Why the change of heart?” Pacifica wasn't one hundred percent sure about to the blond demon.

“Let's just say it was all thanks to a blonde girl with a long history of mistrust.” Bill jumped from the tree branch to the ground, falling gracefully and walking toward Pacifica, placing an arm over her shoulder, “I liked your attitude in my caravan, Llama, not every day an insolent young human faces me and leaves as if I just discussed with anyone. _You're not like your family, Northwest_ _girl_ _._ ” This last one he said in a low voice so that only Pacifica could hear it.

Wendy eluded another fang, she realized that one of the wolves to her right had moved, damn it! It was a clear indication that she was getting tired, she had to pretend she could still fight, but if she neglected, a serious blow would be all she needed for her end. “Spit it out now!”

“A lady like you shouldn't talk like that. You must make it change form, the wolves will see who is wrong and you can attack without any remorse, once you hurt them they will show their original form, choose the right moment, Red!”

“How do I make it change in shape?!” Wendy asked, she was beginning to feel pain on her right side.

“ _Do_ _n't_ _think it will be easy._ ” A voice in the air was heard, it was the _Wolf_.

“Show who you are, fucking monster.”

“ _Do you think you're going to be able to defeat me? I have pity for you I have more energy than you and once I hit you I will leave you like a sack of meat that will be problem of the herd_ _._ ”

Dipper was about to create a spell to help Wendy, but Bill's hand in front of him stopped him. Dipper was about to complain but Bill's serious face dispelled the idea, “Don't get involved in this, at this time Red should do this alone or else she will never earn the respect of the wolves. I hope you know how make a shield, though.”

Wendy could no longer stand, the wound on her right side was beginning to kill her, literally. She had to find a way to show the wolves that they were being deceived, how to attack without them believing that she is betraying them? An idea came to her brain, God, she hoped this would work not only for her, but also for Dipper, Mabel, Pacifica, and the wolves. “Hey, you look tired.”

“ _You should see yourself, I have practically the shape and strength of a true wolf. I am able to copy all your skills and characteristics by looking at you._ ”

“In other words you are using a false force, something very low coming from a supernatural creature.”

The wolf's eyes narrowed, “ _What do you mean?_ ”

“How can I explain this? If I had to face someone I would use my real strength or at least try to fight at the same level, it's the least I can do, _if_ I have true strength.”

Bill laughed, “Red has tricks up her sleeve. Pine Tree, Shooting Star,” The twins turned toward him, “Red will need your help at any time so start invoking a protective field. Just as they change shape, so do their tricks.”

“ _Are you trying to tell me that you could beat me if we had the same strength? Look at you girl, a few more blows and I'll put you to rest in peace_.”

“See what I'm trying to say? I'm about to die and I think you could beat me if you want. Or are you a coward?”

“ _Coward_ _?!_ ”

Wendy smiled to see that she managed to infuriate the creature.

“ _If you want a quick death, I'll fulfill your wish._ ” The black wolf stood on two legs and everyone saw its transformation, it was as if they were witnessing the departure of a butterfly from its crystal. A woman began to emerge from the belly of the wolf and the whole body of the beast was transformed into Wendy, “ _Is this what you mean by the same force?_ ” They weren't only identical in appearance but also in voice.

A smile formed on Wendy's lips, “Of course although let me tell you something my friend,” The Shape-Shifter saw the girl, something here wasn't right, “My ears aren't that big.”

The Shape-Shifter saw its recklessness too late, it was too sure that the woman was about to die that it let its true intentions show up before finishing the plan. The wolves at the sight of the impostor began to grunt and howl. The Shape-Shifter and Wendy were surrounded by a force field, there was no way out.

“It seems like it's just you and me, believe me, it will be weird to fight against me.” Wendy with the strength she had accumulated in her left foot jumped and with both arms she took the ax handle and dropped it on the false Wendy's chest.

The false Wendy screamed louder than the last one, it was so loud that Wendy and the other wolves had to cover their ears. The true appearance of the Shape-Shifter was like an insect, almost like a completely white cockroach, with six legs and two different arms, one arm appeared to be a human and the other like a crab claw, a muzzle large enough to devour someone, green saliva slipping from the corners of the muzzle and two red eyes with round white pupils. Shape-Shifter's body lay on the grass.

Wendy fell exhausted on the ground as the force field faded.

“Wendy!” The twins deactivated the force field and ran to the redhead checking that she had no fatal injury.

Wendy untied the knot from the cap and taking the cloth pressed it over her injured abdomen.

“Let her rest.” Bill approached them invoking his cane in which he leaned, taking one last look around, the wolves didn't move from their positions, a single flash of red in his eyes made the wolves stay away. A slight flicker of light caught his attention and his Cheshire Cat smile returned. “Kids, I never thought you'd find your first object so fast.”

“The first what?” Dipper asked as Bill pointed to the red cloth that covered the wounded abdomen of the werewolf.

“Blood?!” Mabel was terrified, they need _blood_?.

“Red was about to lay down her life for all of you. _Her blood_ ,” Bill pointed with his cane at the red cap Wendy had pressed it against her abdomen, “Now it's impregnated in her cap. It's not like I expected to get it but it's the closest we have.”

“At least I was useful.” Wendy tried to get up, “I knew that this curse had to be of some use to me.”

Pacifica pursed her lips, “You were going to die.”

“To protect those whom I love is reason enough. Even we must take advantage of the bad times to learn to grow up.”

The applause came from Bill's black gloves, “Touching. Humans make things crazy, that's why they're always so funny. Now, Pine Tree, Shooting Star, and Llama, it's time to continue the journey, we don't need any more setbacks.” Bill turned around seeing the faces of the three humans, “I already told you, I change my mind, so you give thanks to Llama, help Red to leave her in her cave to recover and I will take you out of this forest.”

“I can still walk by myself.”

Pacifica approached the wolf, pulling away the cloth to check the wound. It didn't look so deep but if it wasn't cured properly it can become infected. It was so long ago that she didn't do this, she feared that Dipper and Mabel will begin to want to inquire about her although a part of her assured to her that they were different. “I will heal you, just promise that you'll rest and stop eating raw meat.”

Dipper and Mabel approached with great curiosity, Pacifica took some of her hair and placed it gently on Wendy's wound. Pacifica's hair began to glow to a point where it illuminated much of the area where they were, when the blond hair stopped shining and was removed, the mouths of all formed an ' _O_ ' to see that the wound had disappeared.

“How did you do this?!” Mabel approached Pacifica, her gaze was between Wendy and the blonde, “Do you also have magic? Why didn't you tell us?”

“This is not magic, I can just do it.”

_Curious,_ Bill thought, that's how the Northwest had gotten their _first_ fortune. “Shooting Star, Llama could explain later, now that Red is well we can already follow the path.”

Wendy touched where her wound had once been. “Dipper.” She called the brunette, taking the cap she folded it, “Take it.” She extended her red coat, “If this can help everyone in Gravity Falls I am ready to help.”

Dipper took it carefully, Mabel decided to put it in the bag she was carrying, “When everything is resolved, we will return for you.”

“I'll be waiting for you, good luck on your way.”

“Wendy, you're talking to the alpha twin, I have my assistant-best friend-brother by my side, a healer and even a demon, nothing bad can happen to us, we are the Super-Mega-Dynamite Team.”

The wolf-woman laughed, “Take care of them. Mabel.”

“Aye, aye, Capitan.”

Wendy saw the four figures moving away from her and disappearing into the forest. She saw the insect's corpse on the ground, she came up and took her ax tearing the Shape-Shifter's chest, a green and viscous substance dripping from the edge of her ax, Wendy made a face of disgust. _It may be blood_ , the wolf woman thought, in the distance she heard the howl of the herd.

This insect was now a wolves affair.

* * *

 

** RG DZH YVOOV DSL PROOVW GSV YVZHG  **


	5. Be Our Guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Mabel find a hidden castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I am sorry if it is not very well edited, I am editing from my cell since my laptop is being repaired, and my eyes usually hurt if I am a long time in the light of my cell phone ;;-;; I know, I need glasses...
> 
> Great news, I returned to school a week ago, fortunately I do not have many classes although my homework is still painful to do - I will survive!!!
> 
> I probably will not update future stories until this month is finished, or this mid-month to write new things, however I have thought of wanting to re-enter the BillDip Week, since they are small drabbles and I have one or two ideas.
> 
> Update: September/03/2017

Ford shouldn’t complain, his twin brother knew what he was doing – “Has anyone told you how _beautiful_ those eight legs are?” – Or so he hoped. Stan was doing what he did best when they were locked up and deprived of magic. _Flirt._

Gideon didn't like the vision he had of all the wizards and witches chained to the walls of his perfect and shining palace, so he decided (To Bella’s frustration) send them all to the dungeons. Bella agreed with the condition that she would summon them once the _longed_ moment will come. So for the moment this was his temporary residence. He would prefer something more comfortable and cleaner like the Shack, but not everything can be had in this life. Nor could he complain about the food brought by the guards.

_The guards_. Stanford laughed at the creatures watching over them.

Another of Gideon's whims was to change the trolls, they were too stupid and too slow to catch a non-magical prisoner, so Bella had been in contact with other species of creatures, _Arac_ _h_ _n_ _e_ _s._ Half human, half spiders. They were smarter, faster, more elusive, in short, all the abilities of a spider in a human-size. Add the hatred they felt towards humans and you understand that wasn't wise to disturb their new jailers.

Unless you are Stanley Pines. His twin brother had the bright idea that he could _attach_ himself to some Arachne. He had kept an eye on a spider named Darlene, the first day the spider covered his mouth with cobwebs, the next day at noon the Arachne was already laughing at his praise, and at night they already had a talk as if they were old friends.

“I've escaped so many times from prison that I am an Ace in these matters. It'll be like in the old days, Sixer.” Stanford rolled his eyes at his brother's pride.

Stanford nodded and just hoped Lee's plan worked. He didn’t want to continue to listen to the pick-up lines that his brother and the arachne began to give each other. The same pick-up lines Stan said to Carla...

Stanford ignored the same feeling of remorse that had been torturing him since _th_ _at_ day.

☽✠☾

“A few hills and after that we'll be in the fields, then we'll have the city to create all the chaos we want.” Bill explained all the way to go that they lacked – It was easy for the demon to say it, he floated in the air and they rarely saw him walking, it was frustrating for the three humans, who had been walking for seven hours and the sun was beginning to set.

Mabel had seen how the demon could appear and disappear wherever he wanted, she was tempted to ask him to take them to the city or at least as close as possible, but remembering that perhaps he would want something in return, she gave up the idea. “Bill,” Mabel approached the Dream Demon, “When we asked where you were, the gypsies surrounded us with their weapons and looked at us with fear, why travel with them if they hate you?”

The demon put his hand under his chin and smiled, showing sharp teeth, “It seems that when kids want stuffed animals you don’t have to give them animal bodies.” Pacifica grimaced in disgust, “Don’t look at me that way, they didn’t seem to mind when I gave them three deer for dinner.”

“Aren’t you worried to leave your stuff unprotected in your wagon?” Dipper asked, trying to forget the creepy response from the demon.

“Nay, everything is back and safe in Mindscape.”

_Mindscape_ , as Dipper had read and remembered, is one of the many places in Bill Cipher’s dimension known as the _Nightmare Realm_ where Bill is one of its rulers and he could create quiet dreams or grotesque nightmares, and it could be so infinite as the demon wanted.

“Of course, I could bring anything from my home to this plane in space.”

“If we get to collect the Objects, would you be able to return us with your powers within that magical dome?”

“Sadly, I won't be able, Bella placed magic of the moon on her dome, I'll be able to get us close enough but you two will have to look for a way to enter. She's afraid that if others realize her presence in this world they'll go to kill her. It would be a _good party_ that I would enjoy being, you humans are boring in that sense – How come no one offers sacrifices anymore? The Renaissance was more fun, I remember there was a boy – ” Dipper didn’t understand the concept of party that Bill was referring to and hoped not to know if possible.

They kept walking, listening to the disturbing stories about Bill’s dimension and some _scandalous_ encounter with humans in his past. Moments later they found a pond, Mabel decided that Dipper will help her keep water for the road.

The demon leaned against a tree, his black cane swirling around his wrist while Pacifica decided to sit on a rock, but not before wiping it from the ground. She was relieved that none of the Pines Twins had tried to talk about what her hair could do. Maybe it's _normal_ compared to what they've seen so far and considering the journey they were beginning to have. Both were far from Dipper and Mabel, they could hear almost nothing of the conversations that the twins had. It would be the same for them.

“How did you know who I am?” Before the blonde could answer Pacifica gave one last note, “Please don't answer me with one ‘ _I know a_ _lot of_ _things_ ’.” Pacifica dared to defy the demon with her eyes.

Bill smiled. “I meet your family. They summoned me once to find you and bring you back to them.”

Pacifica felt her heart stop, “Are yo–”

“No, I didn’t do it before, and obviously I'm not going to do it now, or at the moment you'd be with them after so long. They were in a hurry to have you back. The reason I didn’t do it was because you were already _marked_. When I told them I wouldn’t do it they asked me for a way that riches never end – And I had two deals. Your father founded a mud company and your mother became a model, I think they have other children though nobody asks about the first daughter they had. They were the typical humble family that became one of the most influential in the business world.”

Pacifica's heart jumped from sadness? Anger? Wrath?... _Happiness?_

"Llama", Pacifica reacted to the strange nickname, “This isn't over. They keep looking for you, maybe everyone else forgot you, except them. Gladly, they are too dense to think that you hid in the woods, it was a good thing you were in that tower with a homicidal lumberjack – Pines!” The demon moved away from Pacifica to Dipper and Mabel, “Time to continue our journey.”

Mabel let out a sigh of disappointment, she had been so happy and carefree contemplating the pool of crystalline water that she had almost forgotten Bill’s presence and even Pacifica’s, even the problem they had in their hands. Taking the canteen that she had created with her brother, they returned to resume the path.

When Dipper and Mabel were away from them, Pacifica spoke again to Bill, “You – ” She didn’t know the right words to ask, but she would make an effort to know, she had to know, “Do you know _who_ did this to me?”

Bill was already a few feet away however he came back to see her, “Yes, and you know who she _was_.”

Pacifica nodded, the blonde knew who _she_ was, she just needed to confirm it with someone who seemed to know a lot.

“It seems your parents didn’t understand the concept of _good manners_ while they lived in poverty.” Bill stopped seeing her and began to walk, re-telling his strange experiences in the human world, were all the demons like him? If so, they preferred not to find another demon in what the journey is.

Pacifica returned with the twins and the demon, continuing to walk forward, to the cities... To her parents?

☽✠☾

“How’s the plan going, Sherlock?” Ford asked Stan, the younger twin had stolen a hairpin from one of the trolls, using only his feet.

_'_ _What you learn in two years in prison, Poindexter._ _'_ “In a few moments I will be able to break the first bolt. Bella put at least five bolts on these padlocks, she seriously doesn’t want any of us to escape.”

Ford agreed with him, at least half the population of Gravity Falls was chained. All those people with magic in their body were chained. Why did Bella Trix need them? She wants revenge against them, isn't it? Ford had no idea, but he could tell Bella's plan wasn't nice.

The sound of the door opening was all they needed so Stan would keep the hair pin under his fez. The younger twin cursed, he was about to break the first bolt, now he had to start over.

Bella Trix had come in followed by two trolls and two arachnes. “Stan’s, I hope you are _enjoying_ your five-star room, I would put everyone in a much more comfortable place if the little blue brat didn’t pressure me at all times to bring _his_ beloved Mabel.”

When mentioning his granddaughter, Stanford couldn’t avoid the idea to want to strangle to Bella, knowing that that wouldn’t help. “Dare to do something to my grandchildren and the last thing you will have to worry about is the whole Nightmare Realm after you.” Ford threatened her.

Bella tried to hide her fear, the years she had been locked up had debilitated her horribly, “You don’t have to worry, I can’t do much now that they have a demon by their side.”

Demon? Had his grandchildren found a demon or summoned them? The last demon they had contact with was – “Bill Cipher is with them, isn’t he.” Ford confirmed.

“There is no reason to alarm us, I won't change my plans just because _our_ favorite i diot is with them.”

“You're lucky that this magic is protecting you or Bill had already called the other demons to come for you.” Stanley make fun of her.

“Well, I was lucky and I want to keep it that way. Even though your grandchildren have found the _Blood_ that will be the only one they'll have.” Bella walked toward the exit and closing the doors of the dungeon with a scourge. “I'll take care of that.”

☽✠☾

It had only been a couple more hours of walking but it felt like forever. The night will fall soon and the last sign they had seen was in the morning. From that night they would observe some lights indicating that soon they would leave the limits of the forest and by tomorrow they would be entering the cities and to go ahead with the search.

“When are you going to tell me the correct order of the codes?”

“Everything in due course, Pine Tree, until we find a good place to start it'll be impossible.”

“I’m tired.” Mabel fell dramatically on her brother's shoulder, “Waddles is tired too, just look at him, he has been falling for the dream.”

Pacifica walked behind them, looking around. The darkness had begun to surround them and the blue flames that Bill had conjured around didn’t give them enough light, they weren’t like the lights of the caravan. That's why she watched the way, they had to be careful that nothing surprised them. Although with a demon at their side maybe there is nothing to worry about. But Bill had changed his mind by a slight confrontation with her, nothing assured them that the demon wouldn’t do it again if one of them infuriated him. Pacifica eliminated that thought. Bill Cipher wouldn’t change his mind again, he also hated that demon named Bella and was a friend of Mabel's family.

A faint light caught her attention. The light seemed to move as if it were walking and it paused, her gaze followed the light until it disappeared quickly. She blinked in confusion, “I think – ” The three of them turned to see her, “I think I saw something.”

“What?” Dipper asked.

Pacifica turned to Bill, “Are we the only ones in this area of the forest?”

Bill closed his eyes for a seconds, opening them and looking at Pacifica, “No, in this forest live many creatures and I can only feel two other souls.”

“A few seconds ago I saw a light that moved, may have been someone else.”

“There is no need to worry,” Bill waved his hands, “Both presences aren't strong, or supernatural, well except for the second but I feel a low level of magic.”

Mabel turned towards Dipper, “Should we go and see?”

Dipper observed the spot where Pacifica supposedly saw that light. What if it was dangerous? He didn’t want to endanger Mabel or Pacifica, however Bill had said that both were low in magic so it wasn’t someone powerful. The twin nodded and walked toward the direction in which Pacifica had seen the floating light.

They walked in a straight line until they found a ravine through which they lowered with some caution, Bill simply floated in front of them illuminating the descent. This seemed to be like a secret entrance. When the group finally finished descending they were surprised that there was a castle at the bottom of the ravine.

“Does anyone else see that?” Mabel couldn’t believe it, “Should we go?”

They didn’t respond and simply approached the door. The castle in the dark seemed to be built of steel but noticing more closely with the blue flames they realized that it was pink quarry, the door was made of mahogany, a copper lion head with ruby eyes was placed in the door with a gold ring in its mouth.

Mabel knocked on the door in the hope that someone would receive them. Bill looked around, he knew there was someone inside, two presences were there and even though he knew they weren’t evil, he had a slight feeling that he should lose his demon essence.

“Nobody answers, this was a bad idea, of course nobody is living inside this creepy castle.” Pacifica commented, this was too obvious, indeed, it was the same situation with her old tower.

“No.” Everyone saw Bill making his way between them, he looked out a window at one of the upper floors, “There is someone living in this place – We know you are here!” The demon's voice sounded louder than a human's, “I assured you that we aren't thieves or anything like that! Or do you know some Crescent’s tricks?”

Dipper rolled his eyes and Mabel facepalmed. They don’t know all Grunkle Stan’s tricks!... Well, not the advanced ones.

From the other side of the door they heard someone running and the mahogany door opened slowly.

“Who are you?” A woman came out, in a purple dress with white flowers embroidered on her chest, her light brown hair was combed in a ponytail with two small strands falling on her face and in her left hand held a candle illuminating her tanned skin. She looked human... They hoped she was human.

“Only a group of travelers.” Bill answered before any of the other three could do it, surprising them by the soft and gentle tone he used, “We lost our way and my sister,” He pointed to Pacifica, the blonde looked confused, “She saw a light and that's how we got there.”

The woman seemed to relax and sighed with relief showing a smile, “My name is Melody, you better get in, the forest is dangerous at night.” Melody stepped aside so that the four people and the pig could enter the castle.

The interior was beautiful, the scarlet curtains draped over the windows, there was a fire-burning fireplace that warmed the interior, and three sofas around the fireplace, beside two sofas were small tables that seemed to be made of porcelain, both with a vase containing flowers, a wine-colored carpet stretched across the room.

“Nice to meet you, sorry for not asking your names we don’t receive travelers, in fact nobody finds this place, can I ask for their names?”

“Bill Cipher, madam.”

“Pacifica, his sister.” Pacifica gave a slight bow, is that how they kept greeting each other?

“I'm Mabel Pines.” Mabel approached her brother, “And he's my twin, Dipper Pines."

“Are you _Pines_?” Melody tried not to stutter, the twins nodded, “Don't move! Please, wait a minute.” Melody walked away from them to climb the stairs and out of sight between the upper floors. The team looked at each other, it was weird and strange the way Melody had reacted to the mention of their surname.

In the main hall there was the sound of a door opening and two people running down the stairs. Melody was coming down the stairs and she was accompanied by someone. That person was under a big black coat, was taller by five heads than Melody. “Are you two Stanford Pines’ family?” The person accompanying Melody spoke in a hoarse, thick voice.

“He's our grandfather.” Dipper said.

Melody took that person by the coat, “Soos, let them see you, maybe they can help us.”

The group watched the man, he took both hands under his coat and they saw that those hands were covered with hair and had claws instead of nails. The man took off the cloak that kept his face hidden, revealing himself. His whole body was a hairy black color, his feet were like his hands, claws. His face was the most striking, a combination of a bear, a lion and a boar. The face was like a bear, with the mane of a lion and the tusks of his mouth were those of a wild boar.

“This is – ” Mabel was speechless.

“The curse of a witch.” Pacifica finished the sentence, it was like the situation that they suffer.

Dipper came a little closer to the beast man, what had she called him? It seems that he had heard the name of Soos, “How long ago did that happen to you?”

Melody and Soos lowered their eyes, Mabel saw depressed eyes, Melody's eyes were showing guilt. “Fourteen years ago.” Melody explained, “We wanted to get help, but no one wanted us to get close.”

“They thought I was going to attack and devour them.” Soos talked.

Bill watched carefully around, paying attention to the story, he knew they were hiding something, not for nothing he had felt this strange sensation when he entered the castle, here was something else, “Dipper, Mabel, can you help this man?”

Mabel saw Melody's hopeful look, she didn’t want to disappoint them but she never learned about curses, that was something they didn’t teach unless it was necessary.

Soos walked towards them, “Really, okay, I know not all magic dudes can break a curse.”

“So I don’t have to lie to you, we don’t know how to end curses,” Dipper felt a pang inserted in his heart when he saw the saddest look of the couple, “However we'll find a way.”

“At this time we have a problem too big,” Mabel spoke, “Our grandfather may know about this kind of thing, we also have another friend who needs our help, when we save our grandfather he'll come to help you. I promise you.” She had hope that everything would turn out well.

“Thank you. Melody takes our guests to their rooms, I'll go to sleep later.”

Melody nodded, “ _I_ _'_ _l_ _l_ _be back in a minute Soos._ ” She whispered and approached the others with a candlestick in hand to illuminate, “Follow me.”

The group walked behind Melody, following her up the stairs to the second floor, in the hallway there were several doors leading to the bedrooms, the doors were of mahogany with decorative lines of pink, white and blue.

Melody stopped in the hall, between two doors, “These will be your rooms, inside the cabinets you will find pajamas,” Melody showed the right side, “The boys will sleep here.” And she pointed the door to the left, “And the girls on this side.”

Dipper gulped, would he be alone with Bill? “Melody, can I sleep in another room?”

“You don’t have to worry about Pine Tree, I swear I won’t do anything to your dreams or nightmares.”

_ That's what worries me. _

“Besides, you have a spacious place so you can accommodate the codes.” Bill smiled when Dipper regained his composure, it was so easy to manipulate people, “Dear sister, Shooting Star, Madame, I'll see you in the morning, have sweet dreams.” Bill and Dipper entered the bedroom leaving only Melody, Mabel, and Pacifica in the hallway.

“If you prefer you can take a shower.” Melody said as the three women entered the room.

“Finally!” Mabel exclaimed.

“If you need clothes there are several in the closet, you can take them if they are to your liking.”

“For real?” Melody nodded. “Thanks Melody, you are the best!”

The kind woman said goodbye to the two girls wishing them good night and promising that tomorrow she would have breakfast ready for them.

Pacifica watched every Melody’s move and when she finally retired, the blonde addressed Mabel, “Her attitude is strange.”

“What are you talking about?” Mabel was already checking how soft the beds are.

“No one is invited as _kindly_ as they do.”

“You did it.”

“At that time I had a ghost that could kill you, but here there is a beast, Bill also suspects something.”

“You sound like Dipper.” Mabel mocked Pacifica. Melody and Soos were clearly not bad people, she could read people. “I think they're trapped here by Soos’ curse, I wish we weren’t in this situation and we'd go to the Mystery Shack, Stan could give Soos and Melody a job.”

But Pacifica wasn’t with her, the blonde didn’t see the case to tell her concerns to Mabel, the brunette had no interest in worrying. Or maybe Mabel was right and she was taking a lot of trouble. Oh no, she wouldn’t be compared to Mabel's brother – Bill didn’t seem very convinced of the story, maybe he realized something she didn’t... She wasn’t thinking of going to talk to the demon, was she? Definitely something was wrong with her.

Pacifica entered the bathroom, the place was beautifully built for a king and his realm, the walls and floor were white tiles, the sink was green with silver taps, it had a sliding door leading to a jacuzzi. The place was too big for two people.

“Paz.” Mabel called from outside the bathroom, “When you finish your bathroom maybe we can go to dinner, I don’t think Melody cares if we take something from her kitchen.”

“I seriously need to remove this dirt from my hair.” Her hair was going to take at least an hour to wash. After a few seconds of silence, she finally speak, “Get me something, please.”

Mabel was somewhat disappointed, she wanted to be friends with Pacifica, but the girl seemed reluctant to want to talk to her. Mabel still had several things to say, she had many friends in Gravity Falls, most of her friendships ended in disastrous dates, though. The Pines girl left the room, saw the room where Bill and Dipper would stay overnight, she was willing to call if they wanted to find something for dinner but remembering that her brother and the demon would be busy deciphering codes she gave up the idea. Mabel was coming down the stairs when she heard voices on the living room.

“I don’t know Melody, it's better if we surrender now.”

Mabel stopped before coming down the last step, she walked gently avoiding being discovered and ran to hide in the shadows of the wall. In front of the fireplace were Melody and Soos, he seemed to be sad.

“You'll have to go.”

“I can’t, I'm the one who got you into this problem, it's my fault.” Melody had tears running down her cheeks, “If I hadn’t been so reckless that day.”

“I have already accepted my fate and will stay here.”

“ _No by her side!_ ” Melody yelled softly, “Soos, I didn't trust her words.”

“Neither do I, but it's the only way back to our old lives.”

“What about the twins? They can help us – ”

Soos shook his head slightly, “They have their own problems.” Soos hugged Melody, his hairy fists caressing Melody's back, “She'll come tomorrow, when they leave I want you to do it, ask them to leave you in the nearest town.”

“Forgive me, forgive me.”

“There is no need to do it, we resist as far as we could.” Soos patted Melody's head with kindness.

Mabel saw enough to understand that these two people were also suffering, perhaps in the same way as she and Dipper. She decided that she would help them, no matter what, though that would delay the search for those Objects.

Mabel ran upstairs to go to her room, Waddles was in her bed, listening to the movements of his owner, the twin knocked on the bathroom door, “Paz? You're done? I need to tell you something.”

Pacifica had finished cleaning her hair, apparently the braid made by Mabel had helped her enough to take care of her hair, it was then that she was ready to undress and bathe when she heard the relentless knock on the door, Mabel had returned and looked altered. “What happen?” Pacifica opened the door and left the bathroom.

“We will help!”

“What?” Pacifica looked at her as if a second head had grown to her.

“We will help Soos and Melody with their curse!”

“How are we going to do that? You don’t even know if it's possible for you.”

“We have a demon who has lived among humans for centuries. He must know some way, we just have to convince him.” Pacifica didn't even have time to protest when Mabel took her hand and ran into the hallway to enter Bill’s and Dipper’s room. “Dipper I have news – !”

☽✠☾ _Moments ago_ ☽✠☾

Dipper was examining the room where Melody left him with Cipher, it was nice and comfortable, the room was big enough for both to have their own side of the room, the bathroom was also huge, later he could shower, Mabel would appreciate it. But first: decipher the codes. It was only a matter of time to have them in order in other coded phrases and done! They would be able to save their family and friends.

“Pine Tree~”

Oh, of course, Bill Cipher had to help.

“Are you done with your nerdy stuff?”

“It's not nerdy stuff, this is what will save Gravity Falls and I thought you were going to help me.”

But Bill ignored him, the blond demon walked to the window, still felt that magical presence that surrounded the castle. This sensation was equal to that –

“Earth to Bill, are you listening to me?”

“Pine Tree, you thought about Question Mark’s and Birdsong’s situation.”

“You mean Soos and Melody? Yes, they really need our help, but we don’t know about curses. The school or Ford doesn’t talk about it.”

Dipper felt his hair being tousled by Bill's gloved hand, “Little Tree, I hate that _bad education_ the system has over those little minds of yours, this potential shouldn’t be wasted in that way.” Dipper walked away from Bill, the demon didn’t know personal space. “You could do great things, maybe even bring the dead to life.”

“For your information, Mabel and I already did when we were twelve and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.”

“Boy, those were zombies, no memories, decaying bodies, empty shells. I'm speaking of people whose soul was in the Afterlife and returned to this world.”

Bill was serious? But necromancy was something that wasn’t practiced.

“No necromancy, if you were under the _tutelage_ of someone else, let's say, someone much more powerful.” Bill disappeared like the wind, Dipper searched the room, but the demon didn’t appear anywhere, then the boy felt a hand around his neck. “Maybe _I._ ” The demon whispered, causing Dipper to shiver.

Dipper turned to punch Bill but the demon was much faster than him and took him with both hands, movement that caused Dipper to fall to the floor with Bill on him.

“You look adorable Pine Tree.” Bill was purring?

The sound of the door opening and Mabel next to Pacifica watching them with big eyes and flushed faces made Dipper realize in the misinterpreted scene that they were having.

“Uh,” Her twin spoke, her cheeks reddened, “I think we can talk about this in the morning or when you two – ”

Mabel was about to close the door when Dipper pushed Bill and got up quickly. “No, no, no, Mabel, that's not what you think!”

“You've hurt my feelings.” Bill laughed cynically.

“Shut up!”

After Dipper prevented Mabel and Pacifica from leaving, he didn’t want to be alone with Bill and let Mabel think the wrong thing, Mabel shared what she had heard in the main room, they were trying to come up with a solution to the situation the couple suffered.

“Dipper and I met some witches who are our grandfather's friends.” Mabel said.

“But not all of them are kind and friendly, there are some witches who prefer the _funny side._ ”

“Soos plans to surrender to the witch tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow we'll face a witch so you are on the lookout for what's happening around us, she isn't here but if she comes tomorrow – It's time for go to sleep. Just keep in mind that we're going to fight a witch.”

Dipper stiffened when Pacifica and Mabel left the room leaving them alone. “Are you really going to help us?”

“Why do you doubt it? Both, you and I hate Bella and I have the feeling that we will find something here that will benefit us.”

Dipper entered the bathroom to change his clothes and take a pajama that was in the closet, when he came out the demon with a snap of his fingers and a blue glow was already in pajamas, “It must be great to have everything you want just by snapping your fingers.”

“Yes. I have _everything_.”

“Can you sleep?” Dipper asked curiously. Bill is a Dream demon. This would be an ironic situation.

“Only my physical body, my subconscious travels through all dimensions doing all kinds of shows that everyone loves.”

Dipper shrugged, “Goodnight Bill, please don’t do anything strange while I sleep.”

“I can't promise you, Pine Tree.”

_ Yeah, I already knew it. _

☽✠☾

The next morning Melody was preparing breakfast and setting the dishes for her guests, from time to time she looked on the second floor, this would be her last day at the castle, if only she would never have found this place.

All this years living here and she could never say anything out of fear. Now she was to leave Soos so he would be free of the curse. All night she was packing her things and now she was wearing more comfortable clothes for her travel to the city.

“Morning!”

Melody watched the curious quartet and the pig down the stairs. “Good morning.”

“What smells so delicious?” Mabel was the first to take a seat.

“Hot cakes with pineapple jam, I hope you like it.” The others sat down and began to eat breakfast. Melody is mentally prepared to ask if she could accompany them to the nearest town, she hoped none of them would question her or if Soos would accompany them. “I – ”

“Get to the point, Birdsong.” Bill spoke up catching Melody's attention, “I know what happens in this place.”

Melody felt a shiver run through her skin. “What?”

Mabel rose from her seat, “It's about Soos’ curse.”

“It would be much better if Question Mark joined us, so you could talk about his tragic past, I'm dying of craving to hear this dramatic novel that I could sell.” Bill winked at her and Melody felt her feet move themselves, up the stairs to Soos’ room.

“Don’t you think you were rude to her?” Dipper scolded him.

“We need to finish this matter as soon as possible and time is running out for them.”

Melody came down with Soos, the man looked worried. “Do you know?”

“It will be easier to help you if you talk to us and really tell us what happened without hiding anything.”

Melody began to relate, “When I was sixteen I was orphaned, Soos and his _abuelita_ welcomed me into their home.

“But _abuelita_ died, so we thought it best to move to the city, where we could work and earn a good salary. I would work at any job and Melody could be a chef.”

“We thought we could have a good life in the city, but all that was forgotten because of me.” Melody looked at Soos, she hoped to have the strength to speak, “When we traveled, I caught a cold. We found this place believing it was abandoned.”

“Here we found refuge, food, and water, we were ready to leave the next morning when the doors closed in our faces and then we heard someone coming down the stairs.”

“The witch?”

Melody looked down, Soos kept talking, “She blamed us for being ungrateful, but we told her we didn’t know she was here. She said she would forgive us, but in return I had to stay.”

“I objected.” Melody intervened, “And by my audacity, she cursed Soos, turning him into a beast. I begged her to consider that she was being too hasty with her actions. She said that if I left she would leave Soos as human again but I refused and every year she asks the same thing until she finally gave us an ultimatum this year.”

“Melody is free to go at any time, but I must stay with the witch.”

Bill, who listened to the story as he walked around the room, looked much better at the palace now that there was sunlight, “By chance, does this witch have an obsession with everything pink and cute?”

_Look who's talking_ , Dipper thought.

“Do you know her?” Melody raised an eyebrow.

“Just to be sure, do you know her name?”

“She is – ” Melody couldn’t finish her sentence, the windows of the place were broken into thousands of broken fragments. Everyone had to bend down before the glass damaged or cut them.

“ _U_ _ngrateful!_ ” A voice echoed through the castle, shaking the walls. From the broken windows thousands of rose petals came in, forming a pink whirlpool in the middle of the room and when it vanished there was a woman with pink hair with blue and white ribbons, a white dress with a white coat. Her eyes sparkled pink with hate.

“Giffany, I haven’t seen you in a while, now I understand why the castle felt like a brothel.”

“Bill Cipher.” The witch pronounced the demon’s name as if it were poison, “Did you plan to kill me with the help of a demon?”

“They didn’t know!” Mabel appeared, she wasn’t going to let this woman hurt Soos and Melody because of Bill's words, “It was our idea.” Mabel was quick to crouch before the thorn-whip hit her, but it managed to hit the table by cutting it into pieces.

Bill vanished and appeared beside Dipper. “Time to implement that Journal of yours. It's a witch, congratulations, now tell them how to kill her.”

Dipper pulled the Journal from his vest and checked each page until he found something related to the witches and curses. “A witch is defeated if we end their bond to the Underworld.”

“We must destroy something that is related to her!” Mabel hinted at the words of her twin.

A blow broke the middle of the stairs. “You will never find it!” Giffany screamed, waving her whip dangerously.

The group dispersed as they ran, looking around the castle for any object that might be related to Giffany, the stairs were broken and the upper floors were no longer an option.

“Llama,” Bill appeared before Pacifica, “Get everyone out, she's not going to let us out so it's obvious her bond is out.”

Pacifica avoided a vase that was thrown towards her, “And you? What are you going to do?”

“Distracting her, her whip won't scratch me, she's a mortal human with corrupted magic after all.”

The blonde saw the demon disappear and she ran to find the twins and the couple. “Let's go out!” Pacifica shouted, they all obeyed the words of the long-haired girl and left the castle before Giffany could do anything against them.

“You will not leave so easily!” Giffany almost threw another lash, but the whip was held by Bill.

“This is not _how_ you should treat your guests, my dear.”

Dipper and Mabel were looking outside the castle, anything had to be. “There is nothing!” Pacifica warned after tossing most of the statues, but none looked magical.

“What if it's not here? I should have stayed.” Soos was worried, now by his impertinent actions innocent people could die.

“This is no time to give up.” Mabel talked, she had to support her friends, because it was what she did for the people she cared about, “There must be something we haven’t seen or noticed.”

“Like what?” Pacifica approached him, “There are only flowers here.”

Something in Dipper's brain clicked, “That's right.” The twin pulled a lighter from his pocket, “The flowers! It's our last chance, there must be some flower that Giffany must have bound.”

The group nodded and ran into the garden, each one taking from the root various species of flowers growing in the garden, but there were none that will cause a change in the place. There was only one last species to try. _The vine of roses._

Mabel went to the wall where hundreds of roses were entangled, she was about to pluck a flower when the wall broke because of Bill's impact.

The yellow demon rose from the destroyed debris, dusting off his coat, “I must admit that I have made a good choice by following you, I haven’t had so much fun in several years, but I am already bored. Have you found the bond?”

“The roses.” Mabel said.

“Well, let this be quick.” Dipper took his lighter and ran for the roses, but didn’t get far when a whip fell suddenly in front of him.

“Come closer if you want to die!” Giffany yelled at them.

“So this is your weakness.” Dipper threw the lighter at Mabel, but the girl wasn’t as lucky as the whip managed to hit her shoulder.

Bill tried to distract Giffany, but he no longer had her attention on him now that the others had discovered her bond with the roses. Mabel could hear Soos' voice, he was near the roses, he could have the opportunity to destroy his own curse. Gathering all her strength, Mabel threw the small object at the beast man. Soos managed to catch it when his body was caught by Giffany's whip.

“Soos!”

Giffany brought him to her, now Soos was in front of the witch who had put him his curse, “Soos, I had planned to forgive you, you are so good and kind to this world.” Giffany spoke in a caramel voice.

“I will not stay with you, I have people who really care about me.”

“You mean Melody? She sees you as a brother. She _doesn’t_ love you.”

“Do you want to bet?!”

Giffany turned to Melody, she was a step away from the roses. “Dare, and Soos’ death will be forever in your conscience.”

“No, Giffany, I've tired of begging your pardon, I'm _not_ afraid of you any more.” Melody took a packet of matches from the pocket of her shorts, taking one of the matches and passing it through the sandpaper, a small spark of fire born of friction. The woman threw the match towards the roses, the spark soon spread among all the beautiful roses.

Soos felt the whip loosen, Giffany screamed as she ran to the roses, the witch could do nothing, her magic was being absorbed by the burnt roses. They all watched as the witch’s body writhed, listening even as the bones cracked and the joints and veins seemed to absorb the girl’s body.

Soos fell unconscious in the crowd, Melody approached him and saw how the fur on Soos' face was fading, as claws, fangs, and pointed ears returned to normal. They waited a few minutes until Giffany’s body was dusty and the makeshift campfire stopped burning.

“How do you feel, my friend?” Dipper asked, helping Soos get up.

“Tired.” Soos said dazedly, bringing his hand to his forehead and opening his eyes at the feeling of skin. “Am I human?”

“Melody did, she beat Giffany.” Mabel shouted excitedly.

Bill left the group who now congratulated each other to approach the burnt roses, with a movement of his foot he pulled away the white robe revealing only dust. It was a bad choice for covetous witches who wished for immortality to bond with _some_ object. He saw something sparkling in the rubble of the fire. _Oh,_ _how_ _interesting._

Dipper was watching as Mabel didn’t stop hugging Melody and Soos while Pacifica healed Soos’ wounds with the help of his magic hair. Now that he thought about Pacifica's hair – A rose stood before him. “What does that mean?” Dipper asked as he took the red rose that the demon extended toward him, he looked at it, the rose seemed normal.

“The Lady Luck smiles at us, this is our reward.”

Mabel laughed. “I misinterpreted it last night?”

“It's a shame that Pine Tree doesn’t want to give me a chance.” Bill sighed.

“Hey!”

“Does the rose have anything to do with the Objects?” Pacifica asked, approaching the new formed team.

“This contain witch magic,” I _t's not powerful like the energy pure_ , “Of course has to do something.” Bill explained as Melody and Soos walked until them.

“I want to thank you for everything you did for us.” Melody thanked each one of them.

“We didn’t do much. You saved Soos.”

“I almost died fighting that bitch.” Bill intervened, feeling offended.

“You are a demon.”

“Still!”

“Melody, you made this possible.” Mabel supported his brother, “Your love for Soos set him free from his curse.”

“And also we kill the witch so that's our most possible explication.”

Pacifica listened attentively to Mabel, does love free people from the curse? Or she had to kill the witch like Bill said? Anyway, she understood why she would never be free from this.

The group gathered all their things. Dipper created a wooden box where he placed the rose and Mabel wrapped it in Wendy's hood.

“When you have vacations, don't forget to visit Gravity Falls.” Mabel said goodbye to their two new friends.

“Or find a bunker to hide.”

“Why are you so negative?” Pacifica asked the demon.

“I am not negative, I only see a possible future if we don’t get the other Mystical Objects.”

Mabel frowned. He is right. There are still people that they have to save.

* * *

 

** YOZXP SZRI ZH MRTSG. HPRM DSRGV ZH HMLD. IVW ORKH ORPV XZINRM. **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, leave a comment, kudo or bookmark this plain story n.n
> 
> You can always contact me on Tumblr: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also some of my future stories: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/My-Fanfics)


	6. I'm Wishing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because no matter what emergency they had in their hands, they would always help anyone who needed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New month new chapter as promised. Or at least that's what I'm trying to accomplish. Very soon my exams will be approaching so I may not update this story the next month, maybe ... but if I finished my assignments on time everything may turn out well n.n
> 
> I hope you all like the new chapter, from this point on we will have more action and perhaps more danger.
> 
> Please don't forget comment, leave a kudo or bookmark it if you liked this story :D
> 
> Update: Oct/01/2017
> 
> You can always contact me on Tumblr: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also some of my future stories: [Here](http://iprincezzinuyoukai.tumblr.com/My-Fanfics)

Bella Trix watched Gideon walk from side to side, threatening to make a deep hole in the marble floor of the palace by his footsteps. His albino cheeks were now colored as if they were the reddest apple someone had ever encountered; If he weren't a human, Bella could compare his face with a bomb about to explode. What an incredible spectacle that would be! “Gideon, I’m getting dizzy just watching you walk from side to side. Keep calm.” Bella Trix said in a bored tone as she massaged her temples.

But even the _seemingly_ Bella Trix’ sweet voice didn’t stop the albino boy. Gideon looked at the multicolored demon, in any case what made her voice was to annoy him even more and his cheeks no longer seemed to be apples, but to be red hot. “Keep calm?” Gideon switched from his usual walk direction from side to side to walk towards Bella, “How can you even say such _stupidity_?”

Bella’s eyes narrowed, “Be careful what you say, Gideon.”

“Or what? What’s the worst that could happen? May they find another damn Object?! You had said that they wouldn't find anything and guess _what_ – They already have no one, no three, but _two_ Mystical Objects in their hands!”

Bella Trix covered her ears at the albino boy’s tantrum. “Everything is under control – ”

“How? They even have a demon on their side! One very powerful! Meanwhile we are here, beneath this magical dome, hiding us as if we were weak and cowards!”

Bella got up from _her_ throne, “Gideon,” Her tone turned venomous, “I’m offended by far you think I'm weak.” Bella narrowed her one visible eye through her platinum hair, making footsteps toward the albino boy chasing him into the mirror and her. “I’m powerful, you know. _I_ create this dome thanks to the invocation with the Blue Moon. _I_ found your Queen the same night she escaped. _I_ called old friends who hate humans to follow your orders and plan to gather all the magic of Gravity Falls into you to make you the most powerful being on Earth. And, _I_ plan to exterminate the entire race of demons so that no one gets in the way of your plans.” Bella stepped slightly away from Gideon, his pale face, before arrogant and petulant, showed fear. That's good, that the psychic child doesn’t forget this, “So never forget that everything I do – Isn't weak.”

Bella finally pulled away from Gideon, letting the young man try to breathe from the pressure exerted on him. Gideon brought his hand to the collar of his shirt, undoing a button, he had felt the fear had taken over his body. It had felt like a dead end. “So, what will you do now?” He asked carefully.

“You said it yourself. Those two brats have two stupid Objects, and an imbecile demon.” _And that bimbo with magical hair_ , “So we have to keep them from finding the next one.”

“Do you have any idea where the next Object is?” Gideon approached the demon.

“No. And I don’t know what it is either.”

Gideon arched an eyebrow, he must regain the lost courage, “What do you mean?”

“Even though the laws of magic can’t be applied in the Objects, not all of them has the same level of magic.” Bella explained, taking Gideon by the shoulders and walking towards the mirror to see his reflections in it, “When Stanford, Stanley, and their silly friends locked me inside the mirror, they just had to collect four of them.”

“Why so few?”

“Its natural magic with the help of the blood magic and the pure energy of a demon, the Mystical Objects react, it's like a detonator.” Bella settled her platinum hair behind one ear, letting her eye see a white flame instead of a pupil, “Considering that this new hunters team only have two blood magic and one demon, it's possible that they seek twice as much as the old Pines and their friends did.” _That's if they don't find anyone else with magic in their body._

☽✠☾

“And just when I thought I had lost – I found a pack of hearts in his sleeve. Nobody cheats except me! Since that day neither I nor Tad are allowed to enter Monte Carlo.” Bill crossed his arms, “What good is having the Bet Demon on your side if you are banned from your own area of work?!”

“Why would you even need money?” Dipper asked, he knew it was a bad idea to ask about Bill's anecdotes, but it was also intriguing to know that all this time the demons had been living among them and hadn't returned to their world as their family had told them.

“Pine Tree,” Bill's voice changed, “There are times when a demon needs some worldly fun to forget about routine immortality. And at the same time wreak havoc that will entertain humanity.”

Dipper deadpanned, “When I think you have said something wise you have to show your true self.”

“What? Don't you like me?” Bill floated closer to the male twin causing Dipper to step back and look away, Bill smiled slyly. “Well, opposites attract.”

Dipper rolled his eyes and turned to look at his sister. Mabel came very excited talking to Pacifica, or rather, his twin spoke, the long-haired blonde girl was rather listening and her face expressed that she wanted to say something to Mabel, but when she seemed to want to talk, her lips closed. Dipper sighed. This was definitely _not_ his thing. He went back to look at Bill, the demon was now talking to Waddles. Well, in a free time he would add a few things about Bill Cipher on his page in the Journal, maybe his family didn't know him further... Or maybe he wasn't like that years ago.

“But when The Time Baby discovered that Eight-Ball and I had made that joke we had to hide for almost three centuries.”

 _Never mind_. Dipper scratched his last thought.

“The amount of people – ”

“Bill.” Dipper caught the attention of the demon, as well as Mabel's and Pacifica's. It was rare for Dipper to do so since it was usually Bill who approached one of them to talk. “Don't you think we should know the story – You know, the story of Bella Trix, my family, and you. What did Ford and Stan do? Why Bella is in the Earth? Why do you even help our family?”

As soon as Mabel heard that Dipper mentioned their family, she approached her twin. “If you can tell us something that might be relevant to defeating Bella and saving Gravity Falls and the world – ”

Bill, who since he decided to join his team had been floating, put his feet on the ground, literally. “It won't be necessary to tell you so much of a story that happened years ago.”

“Why not?” Pacifica entered the conversation.

“Because you are _The_ Pines.” Bill said with a strange smile, “You two are Sixer's and Crescent's family, I don't think there is anything you can't achieve. They defeated her when they were young, now you are here. The next generation, right?”

“Okey-Dokey?” Mabel and Dipper said at the same time, though they didn't feel so sure. They knew that to continue to insist would only make Bill feel enthusiastic in wanting to make deals in exchange for information and they weren't very sure about if they wanted to risk that route.

“But when they – ”

“Ah!”

Mabel was interrupted when Pacifica gave a shriek. The three turned to see the blonde girl. “Pacifica, what's wrong?” Mabel walked over to the blonde girl.

“Something pinch my leg.” Pacifica said, her cheeks were flushed with anger.

After they had stayed in Giffany's castle and Melody had told Mabel and Pacifica that they were free to take whatever clothes they wanted. Pacifica and Mabel had chosen more comfortable clothes to travel so Mabel chose to wear colorful shorts with equally colorful leggings and Pacifica took a skirt with leggings.

“Was it not a mouse?” Bill asked, looking at Pacifica, “I'm sure there must be a few for this place.”

“I hope not.” Pacifica narrowed her eyes and gave Bill a stern look.

“It would be nice to have a magical pet.” Mabel said excitedly.

“You have Waddles.” Dipper said.

“And I wouldn't change him for anything. But in all fairy tales, princesses have pets that are magical and know how to sing in too loud and sharp tones so they can break windows.” Mabel hugged her pig. When she was a kid she could carry him, but as Waddles grew older he became harder to carry him. As the days, and dangers, approached, Mabel feared she should leave Waddles behind.

“If you want I can transform him into something more compact.” Bill proposed, “Bacon would be a good example.”

Offended Mabel covered Waddles' pink ears, “Don't go near my Waddles.”

“Hey,” Pacifica interrupted, making the glances back to her, “Didn't you listen to me? Something pinched me, or maybe it bit me. What if it's poisonous?”

“All right, blondie.” Bill approached Pacifica, crouching down to the height of his legs and touching the ground. It looked like he was inspecting it. His head quickly turned to the other side. “Got ya.”

Like a lightning bolt Bill quickly disappeared into the shrubbery at the astonished gaze of the three young humans. Dipper approached his sister. The three humans noticed that the shrubs moved abruptly. Dipper had decided to approach when, with a jump, Bill appeared, causing the three of them to fall backwards due to the scare made by the demon.

“Although I love the screams that everyone makes when I appear in the show, here you have Llama's stalker.”

Bill had in his hands, now transformed into a cage, a small man who shouldn't be taller than a foot, with a brown beard down to his feet, blue denim overalls, and blue shirts underneath. The little man tried to bite the bars of the cage with his pointed teeth, but Bill didn't seem annoyed at that. Obviously not, Bill felt nothing in his physical body.

“A perverted Leprechaun?” Pacifica was upset, now she preferred the mouse.

“Ignorant girl,” The little man angrily spoke, “I'm Jeff, the leader of the tribe of gnomes. And I'm not a pervert.”

Mabel had known _gnomes_ before, even though they called themselves gnomes. They had asked to see their grandfather, but at that time Stanford had been asked to perform a protection spell on a house across the country so Stanley had told them to come back in a month. They didn't take it very well and things turned bad.

“Okay, _Jeff_ ,” Dipper approached Bill to talk to the gnome, they are somewhat smaller than the garden gnomes that some people used as garden protection objects. “What were you doing here, stalking our friend?”

“I didn't stalk anyone.” Jeff fought back.

“Pinching me didn't seem to me.” Pacifica crossed her arms, glaring at the gnome. If only that had happened when she was in her tower, Archibald would have taken _care_ of the gnome.

“And for a creature that lives only in the forest, you are really close to the fields of human cultivation.” Bill asked smiling, showing his sharp teeth achieving his goal of intimidating the gnome.

Jeff swallowed, each time feeling more trapped, literally, the hands that had been transformed into a cage slowly closed over him. Not even because he had bitten this man he wasn't upset about this... Maybe this guy wasn't even human. “It's okay. Just – Don't tell anyone else.” Jeff moved closer to the edge of the cage, “Yes, I get close to you – ” Jeff pointed to Pacifica, “But not for what you think! It's rather because you had an accessory in your waist.”

"The belt?” Pacifica pointed to the belt with a sun-shaped buckle hanging from her waist, another accessory she borrowed from Giffany's castle.

“Yes.” Jeff nodded, “It looked pretty beautiful and I thought it would be a good gift for our Queen. Today is her crowning anniversary, she's the most beautiful woman in this world and she only deserves beautiful things. If you give me that accessory and let me go, I'll take y'all to her and I'm sure she'll reward you for the beautiful gift.”

The four of them looked at each other and before Jeff could even say anything, Bill had raised his arms above them until the cage containing Jeff touched the treetops.

“Do we trust him?” Dipper asked, looking at Mabel.

“It could be a trap. I don't trust thieves.” Pacifica expressed.

“I say we just give him the belt and we go our way.” Bill proposed. “We don't need favors from a Gnome Queen. Besides, you're already close to the next city.”

Mabel bit her inner cheek, “Well, Jeff says we can be rewarded for giving nice things. What if this Queen can give us something to eat? It would be good to have something in our stomachs.” Mabel saw Dipper, “We don't have money to buy anything in the city.”

“I could cook.” Bill volunteered.

“Yes, I don't think so.” Pacifica gave a grimace. Bill Cipher didn't eat and the only food that the demon seemed to enjoy were the drinks so his skills in human cooking _weren't_ to be discussed. “We may give this Queen some nice things, what if we're in trouble, again? Or does that Bella send others of her monsters?”

“Bill,” Dipper turned to see the blonde demon, “If you ever felt anything out of the ordinary in that Queen, tribe, or something approaching us, you would tell us, wouldn't you?”

“Of course.” Bill nodded, “We all have one goal in common. We need to reach the end of this journey until the Mystical Objects assembled can demonstrate their power and re-lock the crazy star.”

“Well, that's settled.” Mabel spoke and Bill lowered the cage with Jeff inside, “Jeff, we'll give you the belt and we'll go with you to give The Queen a personal gift and in return we only want to ask for food for the trip that we'll have.”

The gnome's face brightened as he heard they would give him the belt. “Oh yeah, that's fine. We have enough food and water. I'm sure the other gnomes won't refuse to give it to you if they give beautiful things to our Queen.” Bill un-transformed his hands to become normal again and Jeff fell to the floor. “Now follow me.” Jeff pointed to the North, “Our tribe inhabits near a cave and a waterfall.”

“Shall we not turn aside from the city?” Dipper asked, arching an eyebrow.

“If you go to the city, just walk in a straight line and you will arrive at dusk.” Jeff commented.

The three humans sighed wearily, still had to walk.

☽✠☾

“Any plans for when we leave this place?” Stanley tried to fit the hair pin inside the padlock but now it was impossible. Bella had suspected his clear and obvious intentions from the moment she had captured them, and from his escape skills without magic, so she had lengthened the chains causing the magic-blocking padlocks to be out of reach.

“Not yet.” Ford was annoyed with himself. At this stage of his problems he must have some backup plan, he always knew what he should do at times like these. “But we'll have it when we can move freely.”

“Try to think of one.” Stanley spoke, “Especially at this level with Arachnes and Ogres on the prowl.”

“Do you think Dipper and Mabel are okay?” Ford asked worriedly.

Stan stopped for a moment trying to open the lock and looked at his brother. “They are together. They have Bill. They have already found a Object.”

Ford smiled slightly, “Remember how it was when we found the first of ours?”

“Are you talking about the butterfly wings?” Ford nodded, “Carla was the first to found them. Then you and McGucket decided to create their own secret code with the Bill's symbols – I'm sure that when he finds out he'll sue you. I would do it.”

The elderly twins laughed.

“Look at us, Stanley. We are laughing about the past, just as all the elders do.” Stanford put his hand up to take the glasses. “What was I thinking? I ran away from my problems, just as Bella had predicted.”

“No. You didn't. We were just young and stupid, even now. When everything seemed to be over, we believed that the problems of that quest wouldn't affect us.”

Ford shook his head, “I hurt _everyone_.”

“Ford, come on, are you going to listen to Bella right now? Do you want to get all sentimental and guilty as the elders? Do it, but I'll do it when Dipper and Mabel are back in the Shack working behind the cash register and those dollars can pay for these useless hearing aids. I don't want to analyze my moral compass in a dungeon. For that, then I go back to prison.”

Ford smiled, moving his head to the side, “Thank you.”

“There is no reason to. You are my older brother and _we_ are family, that is all that should concern us now. We'll escape from here. Mabel and Dipper are supporting us from the outside, we'll do it from the inside.”

Stanford looked once more at his younger brother trying to fit the hair pin into the lock. If only he hadn't been so dependent on his magic maybe Stan wouldn't have to do this himself.

His gaze turned once more to the other magical citizens of Gravity Falls who were still chained. Many of them tried to sleep in this awkward position, others required ogres or arachnes to see their families but being silenced by them.

Ford squeezed his hand with such anger that he felt his nails begin to sink into his skin. He must have followed Bill Cipher's original plan that time. Bella Trix shouldn't be here.

All this had been his fault.

_Again._

☽✠☾

The cave that Jeff had told them where the other gnomes lived was one of the first things they saw coming out of the wheat fields, like the waterfall that was next to it and forming a stream which Dipper supposed the growers of some nearby town used to irrigate crops and their personal use.

“Any idea what we'll give the Gnome Queen?” Mabel whispered hoping Jeff wouldn't listen to them, the gnome walked in front of them.

“I thought at this point some of you had a backup plan.” Pacifica commented, looking down to see her belt, “That's why we should only have given up the belt and followed our path.”

“We'll think of something.” Dipper intervened, “I don't know how the gnome society works, but we must be careful. What we have learned in school is that a colony is very jealous of their Queen and her decisions are all that matters in the end.” The male twin came closer to the two girls, “Pacifica has the belt, Mabel, you could give her something of yours, almost everything you have is pleasing to women.” After all, his sister was too colorful.

“Well said, Pine Tree.” Bill approached the three humans, “You mustn't forget that this isn't any woman, is the Queen of these gnomes and if she don't like our gifts they won't hesitate to want to attack us.”

“Didn't you say you would help us?” Pacifica folded her arms, each time dealing with this adventure created an extra weight on her shoulders. It's decided, she would stay in the next city.

“I will, _if_ I see a problem, obviously.” Bill put his hand to his chest, feigning gallantry and wisdom.

Dipper rolled his eyes. If his family had dealt with this demon before and survived, so would he.

The three of them collided when Jeff stopped his walk, except Bill who was floating because according to him he had no case pretending to be a human after he had transformed his hands into a cage for the gnome.

“We have come to the colony of gnomes.” Jeff happily said, raising his hands so that the travelers could look with their eyes at the huge waterfall and cave that was hidden behind him.

Jeff walked ahead of them and whistling sharply the shrubs and treetops began to move until the three humans and the demon were surrounded by hundreds of gnomes equal to Jeff with the exception that most of them had gray beards hiding his feet.

“Gnomes!” Jeff spoke with the gnomes very attentive to him and to the strange visitors, “I have found and brought with me these kind travelers who want to give our Queen on her coronation day anniversary a beautiful gift just as she deserves it.”

As the gnome named Jeff said, the other gnomes stopped seeing the travelers to murmur among themselves, some nodding their heads, others folding their arms but they said nothing about it, and many others applauded at the fascinating and new idea. Jeff waved his hand to the four people to approach him.

Dipper, Mabel, and Pacifica were careful to walk, they didn't want to step on one of the gnomes and perhaps cause a conflict. Some gnomes were staring at Bill Cipher and as the demon floated over them.

Drums began to resonate in the air and behind them all the gnomes bowed. Mabel took her brother and Pacifica by the arm and told them they should do the same, except Bill who stood before some reproachful glances from the gnomes and the twins. A sound of a hollow horn was heard at the end of the drums and then slight footsteps were heard inside the cave.

A thin, small silhouette began to appear, not the size of a gnome, rather the size of a human being or something lower. The Gnome Queen had jet-black hair combed in a bun with a few strands falling behind her ear and over the hairstyle was a small crown that had precious stones on the tips, the skin that could be seen of her was white as if it were the snow, much whiter than Pacifica's skin. Her wardrobe was a long fox fur coat that covered her from neck to toe. However they couldn't see her face, the Gnome Queen had it covered by a mask that was assimilated to be the face of a fox.

The Queen turned her face to her colony of gnomes, the little men began to praise her raising and lowering their hands. She raised a hand and the gnomes stopped, beginning to walk towards them. “I have heard that we have visitors.” The Queen Gnome's voice was soft and thin, rather a whisper-like voice. “Jeff.” She called the gnome.

“Yes, My Queen?” Jeff moved closer to the Gnome Queen.

“Who are they?” The Gnome Queen pointed toward the four travelers.

It was then that Dipper and Mabel approached her, albeit at a distance the gnomes didn't consider threatening.

“I'm Mabel Pines. Alpha Twin.” The female twin appeared, hoping that the mention of her surname could be useful but not seeing some movement of the gnomes it was possible that this colony would have been so far from civilization that they didn't know the famous surname. “He's my companion pig, Waddles.” The pig nodded in response.

“Dipper Pines. Younger Twin.”

“Bill Cipher. Demon.” Bill had no intention of hiding what he was, Jeff and the other gnomes must have guessed by now, even though Pine Tree and Shooting Star shook their heads.

“Pacifica... Human.” The blonde said at the end, but away from her three companions.

The Gnome Queen tilted her head and began to walk towards Pacifica, noting that the Gnome Queen was half a head lower than the blonde. “Pacifica – _W_ _hat_?”

The long blonde haired girl swallowed, she had no intention of saying her last name, her last name felt like a bitter medicine that left a bad taste on her tongue. Why did this woman want to know who she was? Could she also have been hired by her parents? Was this a trap for her? – Pacifica felt two pairs of hands on her shoulder. It was Mabel who had run beside her.

“She's an orphan, Your Majesty.” Mabel explained, that sentence seemed to convince The Queen a little as she returned to maintain a firm stance, “She's Bill's apprentice.” Mabel would have given everything to have a camera to remember for ever Bill's and Dipper's expressions. “And my best friend.” She winked at her, and Pacifica averted her slightly flushed gaze at the extra help.

“I see.” The Queen stepped back until she returned to her old position and she took one of her hands that were hidden inside her fox fur gown to her cheek, more than fingers seemed long and sharp claws. “Jeff has commented that you bring gifts for me.”

“That's right, Your Majesty.” Dipper spoke, “But before Jeff told us that if we gave you beautiful gifts you could reward us too.”

“Indeed, Dipper Pines.” The Gnome Queen nodded, “However if your gifts don't seem to me enough, then I'll have to see myself in the obligation to take their belongings and let them go without anything.”

Dipper swallowed, what would they do if she wanted to remove the chest with the two Mystical Objects inside? He knew that the chest was very striking for someone who wanted beautiful things. He couldn't risk taking a second search around the world searching for more Objects! Vaguely and he had managed to decipher some of the phrases that his grandfather left in codes and some of them were crossed out already! _Bill, if you're listening to this, you'd better keep your promise!_

“Of course we have no doubt that our gifts will be to your liking.” Bill bowed and stepped back, “Llama.” He called Pacifica.

The long blonde-haired girl looked at Bill and then the Gnome Queen, sighing and moving away from Mabel's side, she walked to stand in front of her again, taking off her belt with the Sun-shaped buckle, she knelt and extended the belt towards The Queen, “I hope this magnificent gift can further enhance her beauty.”

The Gnome Queen took the belt, studying it carefully, then nodded, hiding it in her long dress. “Thank you.” She said.

Mabel quickly removed her woolen sweater, “Majesty,” She imitated Pacifica's old pose, “Here's the most beautiful wool sweater I have ever made. I'm sure that combined with her beauty her noble gnomes will love her even more.” Mabel saw the Gnome Queen take it and spread it out looking at the figure of a candy embroidered in the center of the green sweater with white stripes.

“Thank you.” She spoke again and approached Dipper, “What about you, traveler Dipper? What do you have to offer me?”

Dipper swallowed and searched through his pockets to find his Swiss knife that had been with him for five years. He sighed, “Your majesty, my gift is not the most beautiful you could receive today – ” He heard that some gnomes gasped indignantly, “But I hope this tool can be useful to you and the gnomes.” Dipper took out his Swiss knife, thanks to heaven he always tried to clean it after he finished occupying it for what seemed completely new. Stan had told them not to depend on magic forever.

The Gnome Queen took the tool between her sharp fingers and began to observe it from end to end, taking a screwdriver and returning it to its location, and nodded in the direction of Dipper, “Interesting object. Now tell me, demon, what about you?”

Bill smiled, his companions frowned when they saw his smile, that only means bad news. “Your Majesty, I'm a demon, it's true. But not any demon, I'm the demon of the mind and the knowledge, therefore I _know_ that not in all the world there is something that can make competition to that beauty of hers that has hidden under the mask.”

Mabel hadn't understood Bill's words at all, but wasn't good at seeing the Gnome Queen' body tense.

“I see.” The Gnome Queen spoke almost awkwardly, though her gnomes didn't seem to notice it, they _did_. “Thank you for such _sweet_ words.” The Gnome Queen walked away from them until she was at the head of the huge crowd of gnomes – Mabel wanted to know what the meaning of Bill's words was, but then the Gnome Queen spoke again, “Jeff,” She looked at who seemed to be the youngest gnome, “Take our guests inside my cave, I would like to speak to them appropriately. And when the feast begins they'll be rewarded with the food they asked for.”

Jeff nodded and approached the travelers as soon as the Gnome Queen spoke again this time to allow the other gnomes to approach her and give her their presents. “Come here.” The gnome pointed into the cave.

Dipper, Mabel, and Pacifica stood and followed the gnome, Waddles and Bill walking behind them.

Mabel walked over to Jeff, walking beside him, “Jeff, clear one of my doubts, why does your Queen wear a mask?” She wasn't aware of how the gnome society worked, but she knew that some Gnome Queens _didn't_ wear accessories as dazzling as a mask.

“She does it to protect us.” Jeff spoke up, but seeing the confused faces of the travelers he went on to explain, “Her beauty is _out_ of this world, the same demon has said – But if one of us wants to see her without her mask we can suffer serious damage.”

Mabel gave a strange look to her brother, Dipper shrugged but they thought the same: This Gnome Queen was too suspicious. Bill must have had at least an idea of what she is to have told her that and made her nervous. That weren't _sweet_ words if they started to analyze it, they were words like a _threat_. Was she a demon disguised as a gnome?

The inside of the cave wasn't like they had imagined it. It was even different from Wendy's, in which only the she-werewolf had a few blankets to cover herself at night. The Gnome Queen even had furniture, a dressing table with an oval mirror, a small, individual bed with several fluffy blankets with a bureau next to it, and on top of a basket of freshly cut fruit, as well as a sofa where they sat, of course Bill preferred to float.

“Ah.” Jeff said before leaving completely, “By the way, thanks for the gifts, I was the gnome who gave the most gifts this year.” And this said Jeff disappeared running through the access to the exit of the cave.

Mabel once made sure that Jeff was no longer around she turned to see her brother, “What do we do? Are we waiting for her or are we running away?”

Before Dipper could even respond, Pacifica was already talking, “I say, let's go. There's no point waiting for her, what if she's a crazy psychopath?”

“Look who's talking, who used a ghost with an ax in his head.” Dipper folded his arms. “Mabel, I know she's a suspect, but we can't take the risk of facing someone who doesn't deserve it. She doesn't seem to know us, and neither does Bill or Bella.”

“Demon, she's not, I can say that.” Bill commented.

“So what were all those words you said to her?” Pacifica asked the demon. “You know something about her, don't you?”

“ _Yes_ – And _no_. You'll laugh when you find out.”

Find what? They looked at each other, Dipper now understood why Ford had written all the useful information in codes, he should have learned it from Bill. Who walks with wolves learns to howl.

They heard footsteps echoing through the tunnel of the cave. Surely it was the Gnome Queen, the footsteps of a gnome usually don't sound a little loud. Indeed, The Gnome Queen appeared in front of them.

“Please,” She talked, “Don't draw such hasty conclusions. Yes, you have every reason to suspect me – ”

“Like the fact that you're not so beautiful.” Bill brought up the subject, “You know what the gnomes _do_ when someone's lying to them, right?”

The Gnome Queen nodded, “I know it completely, but they are my only plan, and believe me, if I had succeeded in leaving, I would have done so for years.”

“Leave?” Mabel questioned intrigued, “Why would you do it? I mean, you're the Gnome Queen, you were chosen by them.”

The Gnome Queen shook her head, bringing her long hands to the mask, “Actually, I chose myself based on deception.” The long black hair they had thought was real was simply glued to the mask as the Queen began to take it off and reveal her true face. A pale-skinned girl, slightly chubby and flushed cheeks, small round eyes behind large, circular glasses, her lips small and colorless. She wasn't at all beautiful, rather she was like the average of all the girls they had met. “My real name is Candy Chiu.” She introduced herself, “Ten years ago I pretended to be a Noble Woman who lost her House and the gnomes chose me as their Queen.”

“How did you do it?” Pacifica asked, folding her arms. “The gnomes apparently only look for _beautiful_ things.” Pacifica rolled her eyes at Mabel's frown.

Candy looked down, taking off what were actually gloves from the hands, revealing a pair of normal human hands. “It's that before they had seen me I found a mask and told them that if they saw me, my beauty could hurt them.”

Bill Cipher applauded, “You're a master of deception.” They didn't know if Bill was praising her or trying to make her feel bad.

“I'm not a bad Queen, at all.” Ella added, “After I told them that lie I felt so bad for them that I also wanted to do things in return. I'm very good at building furniture. I built my furniture myself so they wouldn't try to steal someone just to please me.”

The four of them saw each other. _With stealing, huh?_ Someone owed them a good explanation and a long apology.

“I taught them what I knew of my old home and they implemented it so I felt good again with myself that I thought of staying for a few more years, until I die, maybe.”

“Then they would see your face and know that you were a fraud.” Bill concluded.

“Well,” Candy shrugged, “I was good Queen so I don't think they should blame me for anything if I ever decide to leave.”

Mabel bit her inner cheek, well, lying and cheating is wrong, but Stan always does it with some tourists and sometimes with them but in the end he does it because sometimes one should lie to protect, _right_? Even so – “So if you're doing a greater good for them, why not just tell them the truth now?”

Candy sighed, visibly nervous, “You know that they love to have beautiful Queens and hate the lies, I fear that the moment they discover that I'm not beautiful and lied to them they won't hesitate to cast me out of the forest and search for a new Queen.”

 _Men and their concepts generalized by female beauty_ , Mabel thought, if Wendy had heard of this now she was sure that the she-werewolf would hit Candy and then the gnomes. “What made you take refuge in the woods?” Mabel asked curiously about Candy's past.

Candy looked toward the entrance of the cave, she knew that none of her gnomes would enter without her permission but still she needed to be completely sure, “Can you keep my secret?”

“We already have one or two.” Dipper looked at Bill and Pacifica, “Other to our collection won't be a big problem.”

“My mother died when I was a child.” Candy began to relate, “My father remarried another woman, but she didn't love me, she saw me as a nuisance and she devised too many plans to make me disappear.”

Mabel put her hands to her lips, “That's too awful. You should have told someone.”

“I tried. She finally got into my father's heart that I had no choice but to run away when they both wanted me out.”

“You were just a kid.” Pacifica whispered, “And you found the gnomes when you came in the woods.”

“At least after five cities, there was no one who wanted to hire a girl for roof and food, so just wait here for something to happen. And they went.” Candy finished telling her story, “I still think it's still time to reintegrate into society, find a job in a factory or just make things. But then I think about what I should tell the gnomes and go back to zero.”

“Don't worry, Candy.” Mabel stood up, approaching Candy, “We will keep your secret safe.”

Candy smiled at the girl and took her hand, “Thank you, Mabel. And thank you all. Not you, though.” She pointed at Bill.

The demon shrugged, showing a _I-don't-care_ smile.

“Queen.” The silhouette of a gnome appeared on the wall of the tunnel of the cave, “The feast is ready.”

“Thanks, Ron.” Candy spoke and the gnome returned in his footsteps until disappearing, “I promised y'all food for their trip in exchange for gifts.” Candy remembered, “Sit by my side as my guests and also stay to sleep for today.” She offered.

“Yes!” Mabel jumped for joy, “Pacifica, sit beside me.”

 _Why do_ _n'_ _t you sit down with the_ _Q_ _ueen now that she's your friend_ , the blonde thought bitterly – Pacifica blinked at what she'd thought.

☽✠☾

Gnomes, huh? Bella looked through the mirror at the four people who enjoyed the feast beside a bunch of silly gnomes. There was Gideon's marshmallow talking animatedly as usual with the blonde girl even though she looked annoyed. Aw, how sweet, she could take advantage of that but to spend power in that stupid feeling wasn't necessary, perhaps the blonde would contemplate in finally abandoning them when she sent her most fearsome monster – Oh, and there was also the idiot Cipher chatting with the twin male, it's a pity that he didn't pay attention to him at be so entertaining eating and deciphering their codes.

Bella clutched her hands. If Ford's stupid grandson was still deciphering more codes and revealing the names of the Mystical Objects very soon he could give even with the coordinates but perhaps it was _impossible_. Ford took almost a decade to know which were the majority of them and ended up occupying four of them, besides that the only disadvantage of a Mystical Object to be occupied was that it had to pass a lapse of time before it manifested again.

She still had a head start on her side. No matter what the next Object these foolish children would find, it would definitely be the last thing they would hold in their hands.

However – What monster could she recruit? The poltergeist had failed to possess the foolish ghost and end when their journey had just begun and it ended up being exorcised. The Shape-Shifter had relied on its skills and ended up with an ax nailed to its chest and probably the feast of a pack of wolves. Besides that witch, Giffany, hadn't lasted in the small battle that destroyed half of her castle. She needed someone who already knew the Pines Twins, who already had strong grudges against them and wouldn't hesitate to attack them if given a chance.

“Gideon.” For the first time the platinum hair demon addressed the albino boy, her contractor was more interested in sighing for the photo of his beloved. Pathetic, love _does_ _n'_ _t_ lead to _anything_ good, but there he. Bella walked to be at his side, the damn brat was sitting back on _her_ throne. “When you still lived in this town, do you have any idea if Dipper and Mabel already had enemies?”

The mention of ' _Mabel_ ' and ' _Enemies_ ' together in one sentence didn't convince Gideon at all that he lowered the photo of his beloved Marshmallow and looked at Bella. “They already had a name and a reputation, and yes, the fool Dipper had got into trouble that my sweet Mabel had to help him and she was too hurt. But I think that's what I liked about her, she was feminine but also strong.” Bella had to snap her fingers so that Gideon will return to the thread of their conversation, “They had become a new enemy when my family moved. They lived in the mini-golf, but the Pines made them move near the edge of the forest.”

“Oh, and what were their names? They are strong?”

“I think so. Wait – Will you send them to fight against them? It's better for you that if they win I don't want to see any bruise on Mabel's beautiful body!”

Bella rolled her eyes, “Don't be silly, Gideon. Of course none of them would harm your beloved.” It's Bella who will hurt someone if her next henchmen fail her, “But, returning to the subject, _what were those creatures called_?”

☽✠☾

Being sincere the food that the gnomes had cooked wasn't so bad, clear that Mabel had to pass the boar or Waddles could be frightened. Her faithful pig ate some eggs that the gnomes had prepared especially for him, although Mabel didn't take her eye off him, since she seemed to see gnomes measuring Waddles and trying to carry him.

 _I told you, Grunkle Stan_. She thought to herself. _Grunkle Stan_. It had been days since the last time she saw her Grunkle and Grandpa, she hoped everyone in Gravity Falls was fine, they had already gotten two Objects, soon Dipper would finish decoding all the codes and the search would be even simpler knowing what objects they were dealing with. By now she would enjoy her dinner and a bed to sleep for the rest of the night – Goodbye hard forest land. Sure Pacifica would be happy not to sleep again in the woods... Why she looked so upset?

“The objects that Grandpa crossed are the ones he and Stan found in their time, right?” Dipper asked Bill.

Bill set aside his glass of wine, it was fortunate that the gnomes had some liquor, his resistance to alcohol was much better than that of a human, so Bill couldn't never get _properly_ drunk. “Indeed, Pine Tree. I still remember when they found the butterfly wings. Ha! Hot Pants hit it in its eyes and Crescent looked all proud. Of course that didn't prevent Sixer and Glasses from scolding her for being too extreme at the moment of hunting.”

“Mabel is definitely her granddaughter. I would have liked them to tell me.” Dipper returned his gaze to Journal # 2, very soon he would finish deciphering and make a list to make it easier to find them.

“Surely you would see your family differently. Sixer, Crescent, Glasses, and Hot Pants, they were all very different when they were young... The last time I saw them was years ago.” Bill took another sip of his drink.

“Is there really nothing in my family you want to tell me?” Dipper stopped seeing the Journal, there was something in Bill's eyes that were different. Sure, the golden demon was always mocking, petty, rude, and most of the time, unfamiliar with personal space, but this singular change in his eyes seemed different. _Nostalgic_ , he dared to say.

Bill shook his head, disappointing Dipper. “There's nothing that's necessary. You just need to know that they managed to lock her up once and you two can.”

Dipper closed the Journal, tucked it into his backpack and checked the Mystical Objects again, he knew they would react if any object would be nearby as well, he now focused on the food in front of him, “You have a lot of faith in us, have you noticed that?” Dipper said before taking a drink of water.

“Yes.” Bill spoke lightly, “I think so.” The demon was going to take another drink in his glass when he felt a slight tremor. His smile widened and his eyes narrowed. It looks like this feast will have a fun show. “Pine Tree.” He called the younger of the twins, it was a shame he still couldn't eat anything, “Warn your sister that we have company.” Bill got to his feet as he walked to the front.

Dipper swallowed the steak he had and got up knowing what Bill meant to approach Mabel and Pacifica. “Bill says we have company.” He warned, causing both girls to stand up.

Mabel turned to see Candy, “Your Majesty,” She continued playing with the role, “We have to inform you that there may be invaders.”

The Gnome Queen was going to say something when they heard a sound coming from the boundaries of the tribe of gnomes. Something was hurrying towards them and if the stance that the demon named Bill Cipher had didn't symbolize that there would be a war then she didn't know what it was.

“I feel so bad for Candy.” Mabel said she was once close to Pacifica and Dipper, “We have ruined her coronation anniversary party.” It's Bella's fault! When all this is over she would make sure to come every year to visit her new friend, surely Dipper wouldn't refuse to accompany her, even Pacifica could come, that if the girl wanted to stay with them for the rest of the trip... Even Bill, if he behaved.

“You can regret it when it's over.” Pacifica said sulkily. In the first place, she wondered, _why_ would she have stood up too? This was a matter of magic and strength, and she was nothing like that, except for her stupid wound-healing hair. Honestly, this trip had to end for her. “What is approaching?”

Bill made his black cane appear and leaned on it, “They are small, weak I dare to say, but they're a large crowd. I'm not surprised they came so fast to us. Bella must have teleported them.” _She must be desperate. You didn't think your plan well, did you,_ _My Beloved Belle_ _?_

In the distance they could watch as a kind of colorful walking wave moved among the roots of the trees, listening to screams that seemed to be battle cries – Oh, damn it! They knew that kind of hysterical screeching.

Hundreds of round, gigantic and colorful heads appeared near them, little men and women smaller than a gnome, some dressed as Swedes, others dressed as pirates, miners, cowboys or Frenchmen, or medieval style. Mabel grunted as she saw the Lilliputians and their weapons-like pencils.

The gnomes quickly surrounded their queen to protect her from any danger that these peculiar little round-headed folk presented.

“Are you kidding me?” Pacifica didn't know if she should be disappointed or laughing at the _enemies_.

“I wish.” Mabel answered.

One of the Lilliputians came out of the crowd. Hans was just as Dipper and Mabel remembered him when they expelled him and his colony of little folk from the mini-golf, giant round blue head, flushed cheeks, blond and short-haired, even the same Swedish outfit. “Dipper and Mabel, how long not to see us?” Hans smiled pretending kindness.

“Hans.” The twins spoke at the same time, looking with some resentment at the Lilliputian, although on Mabel's part it was more remarkable.

“So fooling up new naive little men.” Hans looked at the gnomes and back at the Twins, feigning an innocent giggle, like all the other Lilliputians.

“We don't fool anyone.” Mabel went on the defensive, “It is very different to ' _fool_ ', than, not to know how to lose.”

The smiles on the faces of the Lilliputians were erased from their faces, “You cheated at the mini golf, Mabel Pines, you don't deserve the title of Queen of the Mini Golf! Without us you would never have learned to move a mini golf stick. And the mini golf should be our home again as stipulated.”

“You are the ones who hurt that child.” Dipper spoke, supporting his sister, “Therefore the treaty that our grandfather imposed upon you is finished.”

“And _where_ was his grandfather at that time? He was the one who _should_ have been in charge and not sent to his apprentices.” Before the said the other Lilliputians shouted in agreement with their leader. “At least you two did something good, we all joined together to defeat the two of you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Bill made an appearance, “And what did Bella offer y'all? The mini golf?”

“The mini golf and – Although we didn't want to – Take Mabel Pines.” One of the Lilliputians exclaimed.

“Over my dead body.” Mabel replied, she knew _who_ each of these orders was. She would add kicking Bella and Gideon to her to-do list.

“That can be fixed.” Hans whispered, “Lilliputians, go!” The Lilliputians gave a battle cry, raising their pencils and ran towards them.

Dipper and Mabel did the same and invoking golf sticks they began to fight against the Lilliputians. They had already fought once against these creatures with round heads, and they were victorious. They could do it a second time.

Bill didn't need to fight, though it was always fun to scare someone from time to time. His black cane was soon surrounded by a blue fire, molding the whole figure on a golf stick imitating the twins, and turning around he began to hit the Lilliputians just like the Pines.

Pacifica wasn't much of a magical fight, even her immensely long hair would hinder her but she wasn't going to afford to be at a disadvantage. Taking the long braid and pulling out a few strands to a length she considered she could handle, she began to use them as whips or ropes to take the Lilliputians who came too close to attack Dipper or Mabel and throw them away from them.

“Not bad at all.” Mabel congratulated her, moving to her side to fight side by side now.

“Just try to keep them from coming to me.” The blonde dodged half a dozen Lilliputians approaching to the left. “I already had many gnomes to deal with today.”

Candy watched her new friends battling those small, yet curious, creatures. From what she had heard and understood these Lilliputians had old grudges against the Twins and their companions. “We are going to help them.” She told the gnomes.

“But we can't leave her alone, Your Majesty.” One of the gnomes refused to move from his position.

“Then only some of you. Let's use _High Training_.” The gnomes nodded and split into two groups while one of them completely surrounded their Queen.

The Lilliputians fought against the four humans when suddenly the gnomes jumped on them to join the fight. They were much faster and agile than a gnome but their opponents were somewhat taller than them and of course, stronger but they never expected the next blow.

Dipper had defeated the section of the miners when the smallest of them shouted and then the remaining Lilliputians fled in terror with others; A shadow completely covered everything around him and turned, as did his sister and Pacifica – Though Bill seemed equally impressed – His jaw dropped, if possible, to the ground.

The gnomes had placed themselves on top of each other, forming a gigantic red gnome that roared and with their hands, formed by gnomes, fluttered trees and gnomes equally towards the Lilliputians – Dipper and Mabel easily avoided the attacks while seizing the opportunity that some Lilliputians were astonished or terrified.

Hans clenched his teeth as he watched as some of his fellow combatants and friends were defeated; Some of them were treated like Mini Golf balls and the silly Pines Twins flashed them away until they disappeared and most of them the giant gnome simply moved his hand over them and they were unaware of the blow. And to top it all off, now the Pines Twins were more skillful in their magic than in strength, without counting a demon and a long-haired girl. Hans whistled toward the Lilliputians who weren't yet defeated to launch the secret plan. The other Lilliputians understood the signal of their leader and began to sneak.

Pacifica felt a change in the pace of the fight. It was as if the Lilliputians attacked with more pressure, not giving them time to flip, blink, or even be able to move more easily, why hadn't they fought like this since the beginning? Pacifica tried to look out of the corner of her eye for a quick glimpse of the battlefield. Dipper beat the Lilliputians even though he couldn't move well he didn't seem to have problems; Bill kept busy when some Lilliputians tried to jump over the twin and even be able to catch them in cages created by their magic. Mabel seemed to have the least of the problems – Sure, she had told her that she was the Queen in this game, and the giant gnome controlled by Candy was doing a good job. So, what did all this bad feeling she had right now mean?

The Lilliputians attacked again when she tried to step back and so turn to help Mabel but that allowed her to see some Lilliputians sneak and start climbing the trees and climb to the treetops... Right behind the giant gnome.

“Beware!” Pacifica screamed as she finally understood the new strategy the Lilliputians were going to set in motion.

Everyone reacted to the cry of the long-haired blonde girl. Candy turned to the left to see some Lilliputians jumping towards the giant gnome and falling on their shoulders. Some gnomes tried to catch them before they achieved their unknown task but if they moved a little away from their position then the giant gnome would fall.

Candy watched as some Lilliputians came closer to her until they finally managed to reach the top of the head where she was.

“Any Pines' ally is our enemy!” Hans and the others nodded and shouted in agreement.

A red-headed Lilliputian leaped toward her, holding up and beginning to rise, as did other Lilliputians who saw the attempt very successively. Candy tried to fight them but they were very sneaky and before she could avoid it they were already on her completely trying to take off her mask.

“Don't you dare!” Candy screamed in despair as she felt her mask lifted a few inches.

Before the desperate cry of their Gnome Queen the gnomes who fought on the forest floor tried to put aside the battle but the Lilliputians prevented it. Mabel and Dipper watched as some Lilliputians clung to their feet, placing one over the other to keep them from moving.

So that was the secret strategy of the Lilliputians. If they took Candy's mask off the other gnomes would see her true face and reject her as their Queen, abandoning them so that the Lilliputians would have the advantage. The Lilliputians couldn't have come up with this alone, and Gideon wasn't evil enough to think about it. Definitely punch Bella before Gideon would go to her to-do list.

Someone had to help Candy, but Dipper and Mabel were too busy dealing with the annoying Lilliputians. Pacifica took advantage of the fact that some of the Lilliputians with whom she was fighting had moved to stop the Twins allowing her more movement – Surely they didn't see her as a total threat for not being magical or important... Pacifica didn't know what bothered her the most.

Observing the situation once more she saw a free space where she could help. Seeing her hair and tightening the blond strands she used, she pulled out another pair of strands to add them and hope they were more resistant to what she was planning to do. If it works...

She struck a final blow with her hair whips toward the Lilliputians who tried to keep her from moving and to help the Twins, though in part they were wrong. She wouldn't go to help the Twins, if not to Candy before any of them will manage to snatch the mask from her face. Achieving her job by making the majority of the attacking Lilliputians fall to the forest floor, she moved her hair whip to one of the branches of the trees until she seemed to be tied and moving quickly she pulled until her own hair drove her to jump and fall on the giant gnome quite successfully. Just a little to the left and her plan would have failed.

“Llama is not the blonde stereotype.” Bill smiles like a child when he sees his supposed apprentice climbing the giant gnome.

“Obviously not.” Mabel responded by defending Pacifica, she had to get rid of the Lilliputians quickly and go to help her two friends.

Pacifica managed to reach the shoulder of the giant gnome thanks to the other gnomes had helped her up to help their Queen.

Candy struggled with all her strength even though she had defeated very few more Lilliputians still coming.

“You are like Mabel Pines.” Hans was watching the other Lilliputians trying to remove her mask, “Taking advantage of kind, defenseless creatures using your charms.”

“Well _you_ pretend to be what you aren't either.” Candy said defensively, her eyes catching Pacifica's head, the blonde placed a finger on her lips and told her to keep quiet about her presence.

“Now we can finally take our revenge and recover our territory!” Hans exclaimed happily.

“Well, Bon Voyage.” Candy said smiling very satisfied beneath the mask.

“What?” Hans asked, confused.

“I said – ”

A giant shadow fell behind them and before Hans and the others could even prevent it, a strand of blond hair had surrounded them.

“Bon Voyage.” Pacifica repeated and pulling the knot in her hair it closed around them and Candy took advantage of the weight on her had been lightened and hitting the Lilliputian who was trying to remove the mask she stood up to help Pacifica.

The blonde shook her strand of hair and it went out to the sky where she began to turn around making the Lilliputians dizzy and finally moving her hair she gave a last whip and undoing the improvised bow Hans and his entourage were fired in the air.

The Lilliputians who watched the battle over the gigantic gnome were terrified when their leader and a whole squadron had been defeated, not before giving them a final blow to the gnome and then running away scattering through the forest.

The giant gnome began to collapse before the fatal blow that the Lilliputians had done to the base of the gnomes that made it. Pacifica took Candy as some gnomes began to jump from the great height – They seemed to receive no physical damage at all – And tying both with the tuft of her own hair she threw it again towards one of the branches of the trees and jumping to be saved.

Pacifica didn't contemplate an extra weight and almost they ended up crashing against the trunk of the tree but Pacifica returned to adjust the movement of her hair and they were able to hold on the branch of the tree causing that the tree trembled abruptly and some apples fell on their heads and will roll on the forest floor. The two girls sighed in relief at being safe.

“Are you okay?” Pacifica asked as she rubbed her head over some of the apples that hit her, Candy hugged her in surprise.

“Thank you so much.”

Pacifica couldn't see her face but by the tone of voice she supposed that the Gnome Queen was crying tears of joy. She was going to say but a crack rang in their ears and before they could have avoided it, the tree branch broke, causing them both to fall to the ground.

“Are you two okay?” Mabel ran to them, smiled as soon as she saw no harm.

“I think so.” Pacifica didn't keep talking as Mabel had hugged her, dragging Candy into the embrace as well. Pacifica had never before realized how warm and comfortable Mabel's hugs were. Her heart was beating very fast and she could feel her cheeks warm. Her hand came up to her to embrace her in the same way –

“Why we don't do the same?”

Pacifica lowered her hand, hiding it behind her as Bill Cipher spoke to ruin the moment.

“I'm not a hug person, Bill.” Dipper glared at the blond demon to approach his sister when a strong glow completely illuminated the backpack that was hidden underneath the guest table of The Queen at the same time another glow was born from the apples that had fallen.

Pacifica, Candy, and Mabel rummaged through the apples until they found what was shining. Both Pacifica and Mabel had a suspicion about what the shine was about.

Dipper opened the backpack as he pulled out the small oak chest and watched as Wendy's hood and Giffany's rose shone with such force. Mabel and Pacifica found that it was one of the apples.

The twins saw each other and Mabel tossed the bright apple toward her twin and Dipper took it and placed it near the oak chest, and before the closeness the rose and apple shone with a little more intensity.

“So there was another.” Pacifica approached Dipper and took the apple in her hands, analyzing it with so much attention, “Right now? Doesn't this seem suspicious to you?” She asked her three companions but Mabel shrugged.

“Which one is it?” Dipper asked Bill, he still had some codes to understand but most of the ones he had deciphered weren't talking about an apple. He had also seen a section of rules that Ford had coded and that surely contained very important information yet but for the moment to know which were was his main priority.

The demon floated toward them and took the apple in his gloved hands before the indignant look of Pacifica, “I could have bet it was the _Golden Apple of Discord_ that my cousin used at a wedding with no future, but this one looks simpler than that.” Bill threw the apple toward Dipper, the twin caught it.

“It still seems suspicious to me that it just came out of nowhere.” Pacifica shared her concern, “Can we assure you that it is _authentic_?”

“The shiny seems to confirm it.” Mabel approached the trio, “And I _trust_ things that shine.” She said with complete confidence to the distrust of Pacifica.

“What is that?” A gnome approached his Queen who gazed at the four travelers and new friends.

Candy tightened her mask, “Their business.” She shrugged and approached the four who now seemed to be arguing about the curious and bright apple Mabel now held in her hands. Candy coughed a little to catch the attention of her friends.

Mabel scratched the back of her neck, her cheeks flushed, showing that she was very sorry. “I'm sorry we ruined your coronation day anniversary party, Your Majesty.” It would be very difficult for Candy to forgive them for this grievous offense... She must have asked Dipper about some of the customs and traditions of other creature societies to apologize appropriately the next time they met... Probably. “I understand if you want us to leave right now.” Mabel could hear how Dipper and Pacifica complained because they didn't have the food that the gnomes had promised them.

“In fact,” The Queen said, “You don't have to apologize, I think you four are involved in something very problematic – ”

“My Queen,” One of the gnomes interrupted her, “If it's problematic they should leave immediately.”

“They put her in danger.” Jeff and the other gnomes nodded.

“ _Are you serious?_ We brought gifts for the Queen!” Pacifica scolded the gnomes as she placed her hands on her hips.

The Gnome Queen shook her head, “I think they hadn't seen this coming, had they?” She asked her friends.

“ _Of course not_.” Mabel lied awkwardly, that she is Stanley Pines' Grandniece doesn't make her a professional liar, however also in telling the truth she had hurt other people. What an internal conflict.

The Gnome Queen turned to see her gnomes, “They remain my guests to continue enjoying the feast in addition to being allowed to spend the night here and be rewarded as I had promised. Although of course,” Now she turned to see them, “They _will_ have to leave at dawn.”

“We have no problem with that.” Pacifica said crossing her arms and taking the apple from Mabel's hands and returning it to Dipper so he could keep it in the oak chest with the other two Mystical Objects.

The gnomes had no choice but to abide by the orders of their Queen and nodding they returned to accommodate the disastrous feast until returning to a glorious state, worthy of Kings and Queens.

“Do we have time for another feast?” Mabel asked Dipper as they returned to their seats at the guest table.

“We haven't eaten very well since Melody cooked us breakfast, nor a good place to sleep.” Dipper pointed toward Pacifica and Waddles. “And apparently by the brilliance that the Mystical Objects created today it's obvious that we'll have a long journey until we have enough.”

“Wise words, Pine Tree.” Bill leaned on the young Pines' head, “With plans like those you look like old Sixer.”

At the mention of her Grandfather's nickname Mabel dropped her chin on the table while Dipper bit a piece of meat while giving the demon a scathing look. They both missed their relatives terribly, though it was Mabel who suffered the most.

“Sometimes I would like to know how they are.” Mabel said depressed.

“Maybe they're all right.” Pacifica spoke, trying to show indifference even though she tried to cheer Mabel up, “If Bill is correct and you are like them, and they have had this kind of adventures since forever then surely they _should_ be fine.” Pacifica felt her hand being taken by Mabel's.

“Do you really think so?” The female twin had a strange twinkle in her eyes but a small smile.

“You should have more faith that your family, friends, and everyone in your town, will be well.” Pacifica was sincere, perhaps she'd never met a real, loving family like Mabel's, but as far as the female twin was concerned about them, it was as close to the idea of family she had in her mind.

“Worthy words from a romantic story.” Bill wiped a fake tear.

“Shut up.” The blonde girl muttered under her breath as her cheeks heated up again.

“Anyway, my pals,” Bill stole a piece of steaks from each of the three human, “The brilliance that the Mystical Objects produced was nothing more than a flashlight and that - ” Bill took a bite of one of the steaks, surprising them since it was the first time they saw the blond demon eating something, “Leave a lot to say. You two are Stanford Pines' Grandchildren.”

Dipper and Mabel looked at each other. Surprisingly, Bill was right. If they are going to defeat Bella Trix, their magic should improve.

* * *

 

**FMWVI GSV NLLMORTSG, GSV TOZHH HSRMVH YIRTSGVI.**


End file.
